


Surprise

by chicalatina449



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Babies, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, M/M, Marco Bott & Ymir Are Related, Multi, Science Experiments
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-09-01 00:20:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 54,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8599642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chicalatina449/pseuds/chicalatina449
Summary: When Hange decides that her next project is making a baby for her best friends in a lab, they suggest she runs a few tests before they even agree to this mess. Hange tries it out on her and Erwin's interns, unbeknownst to them. It ends up being a success and now, Marco, Jean, Eren and Armin have their own babies to take care off, plus their own relationships they need to figure out.





	1. Want a Babie, No Problem...

It was Friday night and Levi was sitting at his usual spot at the bar, The Barking Banana. He accepts his usual drink from the bartender Nanaba with a, “They’re late!”

Nanaba smiles, “Give them some time Levi, they always show up. Hange is probably up to her nose in lab work.”

“If she shows up covered in random shit again I will shove her in the dishwasher until she comes out sanitized. I am not sitting beside that shitty four eyes dressed in who knows what, ever again!”

“Awe, Levi, I didn’t know you cared so much for my well being” She ran over and pulled Levi in for a hug.

“Get the fuck off me Hange! About time you showed up, you’re two minutes and fifteen seconds late!” Levi stated as Hange pulled a stool up towards the bar.

“I actually finished my job on time just so you know, but I had a hard time finding a parking spot that wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg!”

 

 

“Always a stickler for time eh, Levi? Despite the unusual name of this pub it is in a prestigious part of town, so it makes sense that parking would cost so much” Erwin said as he entered the pub

“I bet you actually have a few hundred stored up in your lab that you could spare to pay for that parking.” Levi deadpanned.

 

 

The Barking Banana is located in uptown Sina, one of the more popular parts of town were all the wealthy dwell . Anybody who is anybody likes to spend their time and money in this part of town.

 

 

The unorthodox name was a result of an uncanny bet between Levi, Erwin, Mike and Hange. They bet that Mike would end up marrying Erwin’s sister, who everyone knew Mike had a crush on for years. He had developed his admiration for her in 6th grade, when he saw her punch her neighbour Olulo in the face for making her best friend Petra cry. Mike got to spend a lot more time with Nanaba over the years but they did not become close until they both worked as bartenders at the college pub called ‘The Recon’.

 

 

Mike said that Nanaba would never spare him a glance however the other three thought otherwise. If Mike ended up with Nanaba their pub would be called ‘The Barking Banana’, since it was the perfect hybrid of their nicknames and character but if Nanaba didn't accept, they would never speak about it again. Once Mike lost the bet, as predicted, and he and Nanaba were now going to open a pub, Mike had confronted Nanaba about the name. Much to Mike’s surprise Nanaba was kinda fond of the name, as it sparked the courage in her husband to ask her out in the end.

 

 

“I knew I smelled trouble.” Mike said with a smile as he came out of the kitchen with a platter of their usual snacks. “Mike my man!! Just what the Doctor ordered. Food!” Hange said as she reached for the food. The platter was called ‘Titan’ for it could feed an army or at the very least these, three extremely hungry grownups. It mainly contained The Angry Shrimp, spicy popcorn shrimp,, Wings of Freedom’,chicken wings seasoned with house sauce, ‘ and ‘Sunny and Bean, ’a black bean dip surrounded by yellow corn tortilla chips. The rest was an assortment of other dishes Mike and Nanaba served and since the trio had chosen the name for the pub they had decided to honour their friends by naming food and drinks after them.

 

 

“Good god four eyes if you attack your specimens like you attack that platter I’m surprised you still have enough material to work with.”

“Boout Levi etts shhho good!”

“Gross Hange! Don’t speak with your mouth full you are spitting everywhere!”

 

 

Nanaba came back and presented Erwin and Hange with their drinks. “Good evening banana, how’s it going?” Hange said as she reached for her screwdriver like drink appropriately name ‘The Mad Scientist’.

“I swear you need more than one drink four eyes, you have way too many screws loose for your own good.” Levi said as he sipped on his gin and tonic (Simple and Clean) causing Hange to get distracted and start bickering with him. Nanaba, Mike and Erwin were used to their antics and left them to resolve their current issues. Erwin thanked Nanaba for his scotch on the rocks (The Commander).

 

 

"So how are the two of you doing?" Erwin asked his sister and brother in law.

"I would say pretty well." Mike said with a smile as he gave his wife a one armed hug. Before he could continue someone on the other side of the bar waved him down. "Ah excuse me Erwin I'll be right back."

 

 

"That's all right." As Mike left to deal with a customer Erwin turned to his sister, "So you guys finally having a better work, life balance?"

"Gosh yes! It took three years to get plenty of clientele and finally start making a profit and now it's just booming." Nanaba told Erwin excitedly, "But it's been worth it, the best part is you guys and sometimes Petra, Olulo and the rest of the gang show up. And it just makes our night."

"Speaking of which, how are those two doing. Haven't seen them for a while but I believe Petra is have another baby, if I am correct." Erwin asked his sister.

"Argh another? What is that like their tenth kid? I swear Olulo needs to keep it in his pants!" Levi exclaimed.

"Levi don't be rude. First off it's their third kid and am pretty sure Petra said this was the last one." Hange explained, "Plus you know, their kids are lucky to look more like Petra." Levi snorted at the  comment while Erwin and Nanaba tried to stifle a laugh as Mike came back. "What did I miss?" He asked.

 

 

"Oh nothing we were just talking about how unfortunate Petra's offspring would have been had they inherited too much of their father." Levi explained as Hange slammed her hands on the table in excitement. "You know I bet that Mike and Nanaba would make the cutest babies ever!" She exclaimed , both Mike and Nanaba went bright red at that.

"I can agree with that." Erwin commented, Levi gave a small snort and a sideways  smile as he took another sip of his drink. "You two have been together for what like almost 8 years? Are you even planning on having banana smelling pups?" Levi asked.

"Oh my god yes! They would have the coolest uncles and aunts around and don't even worry about the names we can help with that after all look how well your pub turned out." Hange said as she threw her hands in the air.

"Absolutely not!" Mike almost yelled that, "There is no way you are naming our unborn child or any child of mine period! You named our fish, Minister Nick because of the pattern on his scales. Mind you it was one of your more your tame names" he said.

"You know Hange is right, you guys would have a great support group. Plus I mean Petra and I would be pretty cool and useful." Erwin said as he drank his scotch.

 

 

"Fuck off Erwin! We had to take care of those poop making machines once and they turned out fine. Besides I return them back smelling fresh, on the other hand I’m surprise shitty glasses here hasn't run tests on them." Levi stated as he pointed a finger at Hange.

"Well excuse me! I wasn't going to mess with them like that. Not after Erwin ran those physiological experiments without Petra knowing." Hange defended herself.

"They were harmless experiments that have been replicated a thousand times with no side effects, on the contrary those test tell you how fast and how well their brain is developing." Erwin stated.

"This is what I get for being related to a psychologist, and being  friends with a scientist and a member of secret intelligence who uses a cleaning company to collect information”, Nanaba states as she face palms, "just to indulge in your madness, I think Levi and Erwin would make lovely babies too." Nanaba said, as those two choked on their drink.

 

 

"Erwin, I thought you said it was impossible for two men to have babies" Levi teased. "That's cuz it is Levi, we have done plenty of experimenting and I have done my research. And the only way men can have babies is if they are dynamics.” Erwin stated.

“And that's why you have me! I can make your guys’ babies!" Hange lit up and hugged the two men she was sitting between as she said this. Levi looked disgusted and unpleased at this and Erwin was at ease knowing it's impossible.

"No offence four eyes but I think your genetics and lifestyle would severely screw up out metaphorical baby." Levi said as he struggled to get out of the death grip hug Hange had them in.

 

 

"Hahaha. You don't need my genetics or me to be the surrogate mother. I have been hit by inspiration and am working on a new project to allow homosexuals to have babies with a mix of both their genes. If it's two women by default their child would be female but if it's two males it's a 50/50 chance. By the way Erwin I didn't know you read fan fiction?" Hange said as she turned to her blond friend

 

 

"I usually don't Hange but I was looking for possibilities for men to have, like you said their genetics mixed together for a baby and well alpha, beta and omega dynamics was the first thing that popped up on goggle. I knew that it was still  impossible but, I looked into it and well I kinda got intrigued by psychoanalysing those who wrote the stories. I even got my intern to help me write an article about this and how it impacts the youth of today." Erwin said as Nanaba smiled, Mike tried to hide his smile and Levi looked disgusted.

"Well I find them to be fascinating sources of inspiration! They always have some out of the box things going on and it makes me want to try it." Hange said as she finally released the two men and leaned back on her stool.

 

 

"So I guess that explains all the random burst of hobbies you’ve been going through since forever. Let's see, starting yoga, getting a black cat, joining a rowing club , wanting to get a pool and a pool boy with, what was it... Oh right specifically a cornflower blue uniform shirt. What else was there, sudden interest in cupcakes and incubus or even all that paranormal stuff, along with trying to get a job at target. Gosh I think some of these even go back to like our first year of university now that I think about it!" Levi said as he listed them.

 

"Like I said great inspirations." Hange said while continuing to eat. After she swallowed a few angry shrimps she turned to Levi and Erwin. "So... Do you guys wanna give it a try? I need genetic material in order to get things started. Am sure I have a few cups or condoms in my bag just give me a sec." She said as she began to rummage through her bag. Erwin stopped her with a few words as Levi yanked her hands away from her bag.

 

"Hange it is greatly appreciated but I would rather my offspring not be your first attempt I am sure once you figure out if it works, we would be more likely to provide the necessary genetic material." Levi still held her hands as she clapped them in excitement.

 

"Alright so all I need is to find test subjects. Oh that reminds me. The lab is holding a semi-formal event or was it a formal gala? I don't remember I will have to check with Molbit, but regardless it's to please our sponsors and yes that includes you two." Hange's hands, now being free allowed her to point and poke Levi and Erwin. "But this also affects ‘The Barking Banana’ as I have suggested to the committee that you guys could carter and as soon as they heard your name they were all for it, sooo technically you are being voluntold to cater." She gives a big toothy smile as she says this.

 

 

"Oh my goodness Hange that's a great opportunity of course we are down for this, give me the details later and we can coordinate. After all we need at least one of us running things here if it's on a weekend." Nanaba's eyes were sparkling as she said this, Mike and Hange knew there was no turning back now.

 

"Great! And nope you both can attend, it's being held on a weekday and those who attend get the next day off from work. I love working for people that have the ability to make things like this happen. Plus it will be a large group of people, those invited and their plus one. And you know what that means??? Lots of couples we can get our hands on for genetic material." At the last sentence everyone burst out laughing, of course that was the only thing running through her head.

 

"Leave it to you to say and do something like that." Was Mike's only responds.

"Where is all this we stuff coming from. I am not helping you produce some weird experiment." Levi said with a smile.

"Well I just need your guys’ input on what couple would produce the cutest baby or maybe even run a psych experiment on individuals parenting skills based on their attitudes." Erwin's interest was now peaked, "Well all am saying is I ain't cleaning up jizz and who knows what else from the party, don't call my people after it’s done."

"But Levi~!" Hange whined.

"Well I think this could be interesting, I will come up with a waver they can sign so that we don't get in too much trouble, after all the likely hood of this being possible is low."

"And this is why I love you Erwin” Hange said as she threw herself at him and planted a kiss on his cheek.

 

 

"By the way Hange, since I will be Levi's plus one and we are both invited. Could I give my invitation to my intern? He's a great kid and I think this would be a great opportunity for him to expand and build his network."

"Of course Erwin! I am inviting my intern too. He's such a genius child and it would be a good thing for them. Levi you should bring your protégés too. We can totally count on Nanaba to bribe her cook and bartender couple, to be there right?"

 

 

Hange was getting more and more excited by the minute, they all knew this would result in some weird experiment that would either send her beaming if it succeeded or depressed if it failed. For their sake as well as hers they hoped it would work, it's easier to knock  a happy Hange down a few pecks than bring a depressed Hange out of her slump.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, this is my first fic. Phew its scary thinking that I am actually going to put some of the crazy ideas my wifu and I come up with into an actual story. Thanks to @the1nedygeek for being my awesome beta!! And for the support I got from other people to put this out


	2. Mornings and Roommates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a little insight of the interns daily lives, while its still relatively normal. Very domestic, its frustrating because the boys aren't aware of each others feeling.

Marco Bodt woke up to the usual smell of coffee and his roommate/ best friend cursing from the kitchen. He looked at the clock, 5:00am.  5am who the hell wakes up at that god forsaken hour? Jean Kirschtein that’s who. Ever since their second year at university when he landed this sweet gig at the gym being a personal trainer. He has to wake up at weird hours depending on what his clients want. Jean doesn’t usually complain about his work he loves it, that’s what he’s going to school for after all. Jean is beyond a shadow of a doubt the happiest Marco has ever seen him in their entire life, except when he has to work beside Eren that is. And guessing from the cursing that just won’t stop and currently increase in volume, Jean must have gotten an email or something telling him he was going to work with Eren today. Marco has never meet Eren before but from what he has heard he truly doesn’t want to. And now he is fully awake thanks to the love of his life dropping, probably his mug, and getting hot coffee all over himself.

 

He got up, grabbed his robe and headed to the bathroom. Yes the love of his life, you heard him right. However Jean was straight as a pin and Marco wasn’t sure what the other would think if he ever found out. He had never seen or heard Jean trash talk the LGBTQA community but he wasn’t willing to risk it. Yes Marco has been in love with Jean since elementary school. Marco approached Jean because he really liked his drawings and because he had the nice smelling markers. Their little friendship quickly developed and became best friend status when they found out that they lived a block away from each other. Jean had never been too good at making friends, he was just socially awkward always saying things in the weirdest way leaving Marco to fix some of his messes. Somewhere along the line Marco realized that he was in love with Jean.

 

Marco finished using the toilet and washing his face, and headed towards the kitchen to take care of the big baby.  “Ah fuck son of a bitch!!” Jean exclaimed as he was cleaning up the spilled coffee. “Well good morning to you too Jean.”

“Ah fuck Marco!” Jean exclaimed. 'Yes please' was the only thing Marco could think about this early in the morning, especially when Jean was wearing his nice form fitting yoga pants with the top to match. plus he was down on all fours looking up at Marco.

 

Oh man he needs to get some coffee before he says something that would make everything ten times worse. “Dude I’m sorry.” Jean continued while looking down at his mess. “I didn’t mean to wake you it’s just that… argh well.”

“Let me guess they messaged you saying you had to work with Eren.”

“Oh god yes, how did you know?”

“Jean I can hear you from my bedroom cursing about Eren this and Eren that, you weren’t being very subtle, my dear.” Jean took a deep breath ran a hand over his face and through his hair as he let a sigh out. He picked up the now wet paper towels and disposed of them in compost box. In the meantime Marco was getting two mugs and filling them up with coffee. Marco decided to put them on the kitchen table less this whole incident repeat itself. “Did you burn yourself?” Marco said as nonchalantly as he could, he wasn’t going to deal with first aid this early in the morning if he could avoid it.

 

“Not really just my toes.”

“Aw want me to kiss it better.”

“God, you are always such an ass in the morning.”

“Takes one to know one.” Jean glared at Marco as he grabbed an extra plate from the cupboard. Marco just stared back from behind his mug and tilted his head looking completely innocent,

 

“What? You rubbed off on me over the years Jean. You corrupted me at the tender age of six. It just can’t be helped.”

“Oh fuck you Bodt! You were anything but innocent. May I remind you of the time you cut Mina’s pigtails because you thought she would look better with short hair?”

“Hey I was right, and she got to use a lot more cute head bands.” Marco got up then and grabbed some cutlery and brought it to the table. Jean in the meantime did the final touches on their breakfast.

 

Marco could cook, he had learned over the years how to do it. However he generally ended up burning things or making them explode. For a scientist he was just not one for cooking, except he could bake, err sometimes. Jean could too, but his talent was really anything food or kitchen related. Both their parents were always busy so Jean had learn to cook for the both of them. Especially after Marco called him one day in a panic because he had ruined mac and cheese from a box and didn’t know what to do. When Jean arrived and saw the monstrosity Marco had made of the kitchen and the meal, he cleaned it up and decided to cook for Marco until he could do it himself. That day never came  and they agreed to never talk about or eat mac and cheese ever again.

 

“Then what about the time you put glue on Thomas’ seat and he had to get his pants cut off. What type of glue did you use any way?”

“So what do we have to day Chef Kirschtein? And he deserved it, he kept picking on you and it was gorilla glue, for your information. So don’t piss me off for there could be unforeseen consequences.”

“Oh trust me I know, that’s why I usually try not to piss you off and if I do I send you off to someone who deserves to die.” Marco had to laugh at that, it was too true. “Any ways I made some blue berry buckwheat pancakes with coconut whip, berries and hemp hearts sprinkled on top.”

“Looks good Jean, you really should start writing some of these down.” Marco said as he dived into the pancakes.

“I am Marco, after all some of my clients are expecting diet plans to go with their program.” Marco just hummed his responds and he continued to enjoy his meal. “So what are you going to explode or dissect today at the lab?”

 

“Well Dr. Zoe has been asking us to do some research for a while on combining genetic material from species of the same gender.”

“What for, that seems time consuming. Are you going to need me to rescue you and drop you off some lunch?”

“Yes please, she has been on this whole crazy idea of creating a living creature form two males or two females. So she definitely has us working overtime whenever we aren’t in class.”

“Last year of classes though and then you can be her permanent slave. Am sure she likes you enough to keep you there forever. Congrats Bodt it seems you have a full time job waiting for you after graduation.” Jean said with a smile.

“I do love it and it pays well but I don’t want to spend my entire life in a lab. I want a home life, vacation, time to hang out with friends and maybe even a family one day.”

 

“Yeah, yeah I know.” Jean waved him off and looked down at his pancakes at that, not as happy to hear that as he should be. Why should he, after this Marco would probably find a nice girl to date, eventually get married and have his kids. While Jean will just have to fake a smile and babysit the kids while they have their weekly date night. Probably the only time he will ever see his best friend ever again.

 

“How about you, what are your plans?” Marco asked not really hoping to hear the Jean got the number of another one of his clients who wants ‘private sessions’.

“Well if things go well, I have a few clients that want to take me on after I graduate. Private lessons and all, plus working with some of the teams might get me a real gig with some big shot sports team. But who knows. Unfortunately the coaches also like Jaeger so it will really come down to who is better.” Marco cleaned up the table as Jean filled up his water bottle and made some notes on a sticky note. “Ok Bodt am off and please come back in one piece this time.” Jean said as he headed for the door and picked up his gym bag.

 

“Haha, I’ll try not to get my arm singed by one of Dr. Zoe’s weird experiments. And no Fighting with Eren.” With the last comment Jean walked back to the threshold of the kitchen and pointed at Marco with deadpan expression.

“Don’t! You know I can’t guarantee that and besides, he starts it I just finish it.” With that Jean left the apartment and Marco sat down on the couch to watch some Netflix before he was ready to deal with the day.

 

 

At the same time Armin had gotten up early because his best friend and roommate had received a call last night about shift change at his work. In all the years Armin had known him, Eren was never one to wake up in the morning and be functional. However he never truly grasped the fact of how utterly useless Eren was in the mornings until they moved in together for university. Three years later and they have mastered a way to get things to work out for the two of them. Armin would wake up and get breakfast going, then come into Eren’s room to wake him up; doing whatever it took to get his friend out of bed. He actually dumped a bucket of cold water on Eren once because he wouldn’t wake up. Armin knew that he had to make Eren one of his morning smoothie thingy, he said it was a recipe he got from one of his clients who got it from another trainer at the gym. Since the day Eren and him gave it a try, they loved it and would have nothing else except for that weird ass smoothie  every day. Who the other trainer was, no one knew. The client that gave it to Eren went from trainer to trainer, switching based on their current preference. But whoever came up with this smoothie must have been a culinary and nutritional genius. It had vegan protein powder, some berries for their antioxidant properties, some bitter greens, some hemp oil for fats and some maca for energy boost in the morning. Regardless of how it looks all green, it is actually quite delicious.

 

Armin had tried to get Eren to sneak more recipes or find the other trainer so that they could try some delicious and nutritious meals that are quick and easy for on the go. Armin had a tight schedule working as an intern for Dr. Smith, always doing research or dealing with clients. The fun part where the experiments, he even tried some out on Eren and Mikasa a few times. Once he finished the smoothie he went to Eren’s room, he was thinking of what he should do today to wake Eren up. After all Eren had given him the ok to do anything to wake him up as today apparently was an important day. He was even allowed to dump a bucket of ice water on him if that’s what it took. But no, Armin had a different approach he was going to try, fear.

 

Armin slammed open Eren’s door, turned on the lights, opened the curtains and climbed onto his best friend’s bed. Eren looked so peaceful sleeping on his side it almost seemed wrong to wake him. Yet Armin crawled toward him, and shook him from behind. “Eren. Eren! You need to wake up.” Nothing just a slight mumble from the tanned male. Well he did everything the nice way, Armin thought to himself, now for the fun part. Armin got real close to Eren’s face, some strands of his hair seeming to tickle Eren’s ear as he scratched his face in response. Armin tucked them behind his ears, he was going to have to buy pins for those if they didn’t stay in his ponytail.

 

Armin cupped his hands around Eren’s ear and in an eerie voice he only uses for reading scary stories he whispered to Eren “Eren. Eren. Mikasa found out you were the one that broke her precious teddy bear all those years ago and she is coming for blood.” With that Eren jumped awake knocking Armin in the head and throwing him off the bed with an “Argh!” as he himself jumped out of bed and into a fighting stance looking around for his sister with an automatic apology.

 

“Mikasa am so sorry, I didn’t mean to kill Kuma-san, I swear. I just wanted to see what he was made off and I couldn’t put him back together. Am sorry Mikasa please don’t kill me!”

“Ooph!” Armin said puffing his bangs off of his face as he manages to get back up onto Eren’s bed. “Well that worked better than I anticipated, but maybe next time I should stand further away to prevent getting a concussion and losing my nose.” Armin said while rubbing his nose. Eren visibly relaxed and plopped on the floor.

“Armin you gave me a heart attack! I thought Mikasa was actually here to kill me for that. And wait I never told you about me being the one that dissected Kuma-san how did you know?”

 

“Oh Eren, who else could it have been really. I mean I can’t believe Mikasa fell for your stupid lie but it was written all over your face. I just took this opportunity to confirm my hypothesis that’s all.” Eren crawled back towards his bed and peeked over the covers towards his beloved Armin. Armin was his everything, he was pretty sure that he would rather die than have anything happen to Armin. There was only one person in the world that knew how he felt about his best friend, and that was his sister Mikasa. She pointed out to him that he was always staring at Armin in awe, especially when Armin started one of his long ass rants. Eren being the only one willing to sit there long enough listening intently to Armin.

 

“But Ar you didn’t have to kill me, it’s not like I can come back to life if you kill me with a heart attack.”

“I know.” Armin said as he leaned down on the bed and rested his face in his hands as he watched his friend’s gorgeous turquoise eyes. “I was hoping more for a panic attack, I am really good at handling those.” That got Eren to smack Armin on his shoulder. Armin just laughed and rolled over to make room for Eren to join him on the bed. Eren did just as Armin wanted, there was no saying no to those big blue eyes of his.

 

“So did you tell Dr. Smith about **that** then?” Eren asked Armin as he poked his friend’s cheek.

“Hell no! Are you kidding me Eren? That’s like asking to get fired. Yeah I put a claustrophobic patient in a closet, it got locked by accident and then had to find the key while making them think I am still in the room with them.” Eren just laughed as Armin recollects the events of the other day. “Hey it’s not funny!” He smacks Eren across his chest leaving his arm there.

“What, awe come on Ar it’s totally funny.” He receives a glare from Armin. “Ok fine it’s not funny it's hilarious you have to admit to that. And I can’t believe your patient fell for it too” Armin laughed a bit to that.

“Ok in retrospect it’s pretty funny, I'm just glad they didn’t have panic attack on me or else I would have been severely screwed. Any who, I am only awake at the ass crack of the morning for a dumb ass who needs to get to work early. Come on Eren breakfast is ready.”

 

“Kay, thanks Armin I honestly don’t know what I would do without you.” Eren said as the two of them got out of bed and Armin headed for the door.

“Uh live with Mikasa probably cuz you seem incapable of living on your own.”

“God no! Are you kidding me? Annie would probably skin me alive!”

“Probably.” Was Armin’s responds as he left the room and went back to the kitchen. There he set up his laptop and put on his glasses as he drank his green smoothie. Eren came out with some brightly colored yet form fitting gym clothes.

 

“Well how does it look?” he asked Armin.

“Like the 70’s barfed up on you and brought better fashion sense back with them.” Eren just looked at him dejected and disappointed

“Thanks.” Eren chugged his smoothie and washed both his and Armin’s glass. Then he ruffled his friend’s hair as he grabs his stuff and heads out. “Bye Armin.”

 

“Bye Eren have a good day and don’t pick fights with Jean.”

Before Eren closed the door the last thing Armin heard was “Argh don’t even mention his name!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you guys think, also message me on my tumblr chibichan449


	3. Stark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren and Jean try their very best and in the end they screw up, how are they going to tell Marco and Armin the news?

Eren and Jean both arrived at the school gym. It's a brand new student gym but allows people from around the area to come in as well. The building is composed of mostly large glass windows to allow natural light, it has multiple floors but also open concept and minimalist in style. It still had lots of rooms for different activities and private sessions. Plus providing state of the art everything. It was also cheaper because a lot of the individuals that work there were students. Most of them doing co-op and other such things. . After all the kinesiology program at Reiss U was one of the best in the country.  
Jean and Eren both went to see their boss before meeting their client. As they were about to enter they spotted each other.

"Jaeger."  
"Horseface."

The door opened up before either one of them started anything. "Good to see you both boys!" Their boss, Harvey, said as he turned them around to stare at the gym. He pulled them both close to him and whispered "Ok so today you both have a big job to do. One of our beneficiaries is sending his wife to get a new workout routine and a new trainer. Now careful the last one got fired for getting, ah, 'a little too friendly' with the Mrs. shall we say. So try not to fall for the same tricks. You're both some of my best trainers and it would be a shame to let you go over a lonely house wife. Also our favourite middle age client." Harvey didn't even have to finish that sentence they both new who it was.

  
"Argh!" They said in unison and face palmed at the same time.  
"That's right boys, Mrs. Thornton is back and she asked specifically for both of you."

Eren was the first to react, he wasn't going to let Mrs. Thornton pinch his butt again or try to feel him up, "Harvey can't we like do something about her..." Eren moved his hands in weird gestures as he tried looking for the right word.  
"Harassment!" Jean finished for him.  
"Exactly!" Eren pointed at Jean, for once both of them agreed on something.  
"Listen boys, many have tried but this lady is good. She knows where all the cameras are and she has some messed up skill at doing these sort of things while making it not look like harassment. And I also know she switches trainers more often than she changes her underwear."  
"Ugh!" Both boys were completely disgusted by that and truly ungrateful for the mental image Harvey had supplied.  
"But this time you are being partnered up, at her request none the less, but maybe you guys can help each other out. After all you each have had to train her on your own on and off for the last three years. Am sure you can work something out."

 

Harvey gave them a pat on the back and pushed the two now apprehensive boys to the lounge area of the gym where Mrs. Thornton was waiting for them. "Now please put your game face on. You know she's the reason you guys get paid above minimum wage. Ah Mrs. Thornton! So good to see you again."  
Harvey had the best poker face they have ever seen, he seemed completely happy and truly excited that Mrs. Thornton was there yet again. While those two were talking like old friends Eren turned to Jean "You are free to give her all the hand to hand help she needs."

 

"Oh thanks Eren so considerate, what you can't handle the old bat getting all up and personal with you."  
"Yeah I bet you love it, seeing as that the only action you ever see with a face like yours."

Jean and Eren had worked together for so long that things like these stop bothering him as much as it used to, Jean now mostly internalized it and takes it out later on a punching bag or dough. Jean decided to be the better man and so he sighed and goes up to Mrs. Thornton, leaving Eren behind. "Mrs. Thornton, how are you? It's been almost a month since you last requested me as your trainer." Jean put on his best smile and sat beside her, as she rambled on.

 

Eren looked in complete awe and disgust. He had never seen Jean with any other facial expression except contempt and anger. And he was so sure one of them was his resting face. He couldn't believe how charming Jean was with Mrs. Thornton that he almost missed the part about the recipes. 'Oh so Jean makes meal plans too eh? Huh I bet I can make them better.' Eren thought to himself as he walked over and decided to get things started.

  
"It's lovely seeing you Mrs. Thornton however I think it's best we make full use of our time together and get started don't you?" He smiled.  
"Oh Eren you are such a flirt." She said as Jean helped her stand up.

"Why don't we do a full body today, so you can really feel the burn tomorrow hmm?" Eren asked, Jean was secretly thankful for that. If Mrs. Thornton was too sore from her workout she wouldn't show up for the next few days.  
"Well I don't know if that's such a good idea?" Said Mrs. Thornton as they walked towards the track.

 

"I have to agree with Eren, as I was just about to suggest the same thing. Think about it like this Mrs. Thornton we will do some cardio to warm up and then we shall do a few reps at high intensity to get the most out of our work out and build some muscles. By the end of it you will be as fit as Eren and I combined."

Jean attempted to butter her up, Eren quickly catching on to the type of exercise he was planning on getting their client to do. Small reps high intensity would tire her out, after all she was not here for "bodybuilding" as she had once called it.

 

"Ok Jean dear, as long as I get to take some of your lovely recipes home with me."

"Anything in specific you want?"  
"Well you know I am trying my damn hardest to lose weight here, pardon my French. But I still want something sweet to snack on every once in awhile."  
"Well if you work hard I can give you an excellent cookie recipe that shouldn't interfere with your goal."  
"Oh my cookies, my favourite. But how can you guarantee it won't make me gain weight."

"Let's just say that if one batch could make you gain weight, then my roommate would be rolling as a method of transportation with the amount of cookies he eats. Trust me those bad boys have saved my life plenty of times when I do something wrong." That got Mrs. Thornton in a good mood and ready to do what they wanted.

  
"And from what I'm guessing, if I know you well enough that must be a daily occurrence." Eren said as he headed to the track.  
“Oh my Jean, don't listen to Eren am sure you don't make you them that often, however you are going to make one young lady very happy if your cooking is that amazing."  
"Eh thank you Mrs. Thornton, now how about we get started on those laps."

 

Jean and Eren managed to work well with each other, avoiding Mrs. Thornton's sticky hands more than when they were on their own. Once they finished their work out with her they were sure she would be out for a few days.

  
"Well that when better than expect I must say." Eren sighed as he and Jean sat down for a few minutes.  
"I agree only had her pinch my butt twice and feel my arms once. Not bad at all." Eren laughed at that but he had to admit with the two of them together against Mrs. Thornton's attacks had subsided dramatically.

 

"Well I guess we should go back to the lounge and great our new client it's almost time." Jean said as he stretched his back and looked at the clock on the wall.  
"Yeah, you're right. We need to do an intake form and set up her gym key with the right setting and see what she likes. It's going to be a long session."  
“What do you think she's like? Probably some middle aged cougar on the prowl?" Eren stood up as he gave his reply,  
"Probably. Maybe with tons of Botox and surgery to keep looking young. Anywho let's get her name from Harvey so that we at least look professional.” Jean stood up as he hummed his approval. The knocked on Harvey's office.

  
"Come in." The boys opened the door. "Hey boys how did it go?"  
"It went well I guess." They both looked at each other as Eren gave his response.  
"Well I can see that. You are both in one piece ." Harvey stated as he pointed to both of them, causing both Eren and Jean to pout.

  
"Anyways, we looked at the schedule and our next appointment is soon. However we don't know the client's name, it wasn't on the schedule." Jean got straight to the point, just because he and Eren hadn't decided to kill each other just yet didn't mean that their luck would last forever.

"Ah right, her name is Mrs. Stark."  
"Like Tony Stark kinda Stark?" Eren asked.  
"Who?" With that and the look Harvey gave them it was clear to see he had no clue what he was talking about.  
"He means Ironman. You know the guy who becomes Ironman." Jean tried to explain.  
"Yeah sure whatever floats your boats kids. Now off you go she is probably waiting for you now and play nice." Harvey said as he returned to his paperwork and waved them off.

  
As soon as they closed the door Eren burst out "I can't believe he doesn't know Tony Stark?! Has he been living under a rock for like...since forever?"  
"Plus he called us kids, you do realize he is like, what 3 years older than us? And besides so many people come in here asking if we can train them to look like Captain America that by now he should at least know what they are." They kept their conversation going as they headed towards the lounge area.

  
"Whatever, dude let’s just get this done I have to go shower before class and I have a lab today and I just can't be late."  
"Yeah no I get it. I have to go straight to class after and then make lunch for me and Marco."

"Wh-tsh! He's got you whipped man. What are you his wife?"  
"It's.. It's not like that" Jean tried to defend himself as he turned bright red, "It's just we have a system, we always had. I cook cuz I don't burn down the house and he does the laundry cuz he won't flood the place. End of story."  
"Sure whatever. Me and Armin work way better than the two of you trust me."  
"Oh really do tell."  
"Too late we are here and she must be somewhere around here?" Eren said as he searched the lounge area for their middle age Mrs. Stark.

 

The lounge was not full but there were a few people waiting for their classes or talking with their personal trainers, but no sight of their Mrs. Stark. "Eh, so you think she remembered her appointment is today?"

"Hold on Eren let me ask. Excuse me ladies and gentlemen, we are looking for a Mrs. Stark? We are her personal trainers." Everyone in the lounge paid attention to the announcement Jean made, and as soon as it was over they went back to what they were doing. All except one.

  
"Oh that would be me." A young blond and attractive woman said as she raised her hand.

"Well so much for the old part." Eren whispered in Jean's ear as he walked past him to great Mrs. Stark. "Hello Mrs. Stark. I am Eren and the one that made the announcement is Jean. We will be your trainers. So if you would just follow us we will take you to the office so we can do some paper work and get things started."  
"Of course." She said as she stood up and followed Jean and Eren to their makeshift office that everyone shared when they had a new client. Luckily it was empty and didn't have to wait. Perks of doing early morning shifts.

  
"Please Mrs. Stark take a seat." Jean gestured towards the chair as he sat behind the desk and Eren pulled over a yoga ball to sit on.  
"Oh please, call me Stacy." She said as she sat down and placed her purse on her lap. "And you boys are just as scrumptious as they say." She said as she leans over the desk and eyes both boy while liking her lips.

  
"Excuse me?" Was all Eren said as he shot her a look, and Jean backed away from the desk.  
"Well we need to get a bit of information from you so that we can get things started. We have the basic information already imputed into the computer under your profile. So we would like to know what kind of activities you like to do and what you would like to work on." Jean said pretending the last comment didn't happen.

  
"Well I like to dance. So if you have any belly dancing, pole dancing or even Zumba I am down for that."  
"Well I will write down Zumba, Eren is one of our instructors for that."  
"Oh? And what do you teach." Jean did not look too pleased with that comment. Eren wasn't too happy being thrown under the bus for that so he decided to provide Stacy with the information.

  
"He teaches yoga and Pilates as his specialty."  
"That perfect I love those too !" Stacy exclaimed.  
"Alright I will add that to the computer." Eren said with a grin.  
"Eren also teaches spin classes and kickboxing." Jean knew that if he was going under, he was taking Eren with him.

  
"Spin sounds like fun but kick boxing is not my cup of tea. Do either of you do swimming or anything else?" Stacy was having a blast getting a reaction out of the two and it seemed at this point Jean and Eren hadn't picked up on it.  
"Jean teaches martial arts and we both do Aqua fit and regular swimming lessons."  
"That's perfect!" Stacy exclaimed as she clapped her hands together. "I love swimming and I bet you boys would look great in speedos."

  
"So what are you looking to improve?" Jean said trying to get them back on track.  
"Oh my cardio and flexibility. You know it's very important that I look good so that I don't get switched for another. After all, I am Mr. Stark's 6th wife." Jean visibly paled, not that you could notice with his fair complexion, while Eren seemed to have darkened a bit in the face.

  
"So what would you like to start with today?" Eren said as he avoided looking at Stacy and instead look at the screen in front of him and Jean. He was definitely in Jean's personal space but he really couldn't care at the moment. It seemed as though they were going to have a harder time with this one than with Mrs. Thornton.

While Thornton was sneaky, Stacy seemed forward and ready to pounce and that spelled trouble with a capital T for the two of them.  
"Something where we can get to know each other better and maybe you guys can show me how the machines work?" Stacy said as she wrapped her hair on her finger and looked like the picture of innocence.  
"Very well how about you go get changed and we will meet you buy the weights." Jean said as Stacy shot up from her seat with excitement and giggled as she left for the change room.

 

"Phew!" Eren stated as he stretched on the desk, while Jean leaned back in his seat and ran his hands through his face and hair.  
"She's crazy! She's going to get us fired Eren!"  
"I know! Maybe we could try doing something like what we did with Thornton."  
"I was thinking the same thing but who knows she might have more stamina than the old lady."  
"But she's so thin, I don't think she will be that fit?"

 

As luck would have it Eren was sooo wrong. Stacy pretended not to know how to use anything to get the boys to get close and personal with her and as the session dragged on she was starting to get on their nerves and Eren and Jean started to annoy each other. At first Stacy was happy with how things turned out, to her it seemed like two men were fighting to get her attention. Yet when she suggested they go do some laps in the pool things went terribly wrong.

 

Not only did they find themselves in compromising positions with the young Mrs. Stark throughout the day but the increasing tension was ruining the pleasant mood between the two. Jean and Eren started to bicker more than the usual. They were So caught up in their bickering that they didn't even realize that Stacy was not very good at swimming. Eren kept pushing her to keep going, to do things better and faster. While Jean kept arguing that they should work on technique instead, seeming as her kicking and crawl needed work. At one point neither of the boys noticed that Stacy was having problems swimming and was growing tired to the point of drowning.

 

It wasn't until the lifeguard dived into the pool that they stopped their bickering and turned their attention back to Mrs. Stark. The life guard Reiner pulled Stacy out on the other side of the pool. Eren and Jean swam to the other side to make sure their client was ok.

 

"Miss are you ok?" Asked Reiner. Stacy was clinging to him while coughing and inhaling as much air as she could. When Jean and Eren arrived and knelt down beside Stacy, all of her charm and flirtation had left her.

"You two!" She gave them a look that if looks could kill that one would have been a slow and excruciatingly painful death. "I have never, in my 20 years been ignored by men like this! EVER! Do you know what this means? Hmm?"

 

Jean and Eren were taken back by this sudden change and threatening tone. "I came here to catch the attention of some young men to tango with, while my disgustingly old husband is off making me money. However you two decide to engross yourselves in each other instead of me. And here I thought I picked the smartest and hottest guys in the gym. I guess I was wrong. Do you know what that means for your careers? You guys are through! I will make sure my husband is fully aware of how you boys couldn't keep your hands off me and how you tried to get all frisky with me in the pool resulting in me nearly drowning."

 

Now even Reiner seemed scared, he had let go of Stacy and moved back while praying for both of Eren and Jean's souls. Said boys looked like kicked puppies, they knew where they went wrong but they were also aware they were being falsely accused. "I am going to go straight to that Harvey's office and make sure you two are fired on the spot or so help me god my husband will shut down your gym!" Stacy exclaimed as she stormed off to Harvey's office.

  
"You guys are best off to just quit. Take one for the team and not shut down the gym. Trust me any one who's worked with you guys long enough knows that neither of you would lay a hand on a client, but with her rage and monetary strength. Sigh. I don't think anyone will survive." Reiner said trying to comfort the two.

  
"Ah fuck I knew working with horse face was going to get me fired!"  
"Me! The hell Jaeger! Am not the one making her do laps at top speed after a crazy work out with the weights!"  
After that comment Eren went straight for Jean and pushed him down. Jean retaliated and began to hit Eren. Reiner had to break it up and walked them to Harvey's office to prevent any further violence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't know what i was doing!! I wanted to get them fired cuz there s something better for them in the future I promise. And this chapter and the next are uploaded ahead of schedule bc of my Lady Hades. :)  
> Feel free to message me on tumblr: chibichan449 tagged art work under lab babies


	4. Mac and Cheese

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just some background on Jean and Marco's relationship, as well as how Jean really feels about his BFF

Once they arrived at Harvey's office they could hear Stacy crying and giving her version of the story with the door to the office open for everyone to hear.

"Can you believe the nerve of those men! They sexually harassed me and when I finally stood up for myself, As you know I don’t want to cause any trouble or anything. But they threw me into the pool when I didn’t let them touch me anymore and they fully knew that I am not a swimmer!" She cried some more while Harvey tried to comfort her

  
"I will take care of this Mrs. Stark and I can guarantee you that this will never happen again."  
“I cannot feel safe in this gym until those two are fired."

With that said Reiner knocked on the door and both of the accused entered Harvey's office ready for the hammer to drop. "I am very disappointed in you boys. How could you even think of doing such a thing to Mrs. Stark or any client for that matter? I trusted you and this is what I get! You two are fired and I will investigate this further and make sure none of your other clients have been harassed and threatened to keep quit."  
"Yes sir." Was all they said as they left while Stacy grinned behind Harvey’s back.

 

"Reiner make sure they take their things and escort them out of the building."  
"Very well sir."As Jean and Eren gathered their things and we're getting ready to leave, Reiner stopped them and gave them a hug. "Now listen you two, you both are clean and for now try to avoid anything that could land you in any more trouble ok. And by that I mean no fighting. I will talk to Harvey to make sure that it is investigated well and to prove your innocence. After all not only would this be on your criminal record but it could also get you kicked out of school." Both knew that Reiner was just trying to comfort them but instead he just reinforced how very screwed they both were if things didn't get cleared up and soon.

 

"Thanks Reiner. I know horseface and I don't get along well but, I can guarantee that neither one of us would ever do such a terrible thing. Hopefully things clear up soon."  
"Of course neither of you would. One my radar is never wrong and both of you are decent humans, so I believe it will get clear up soon. Plus I will be a witness to this and will make sure that what she said at the pool gets put on record".

Both Eren and Jean went their separate ways after that. Grateful that despite being in the same kinesiology program, they had each chosen a different minor so now they had hardly any classes together. They were sure that at the moment they could very well kill each other.  
Eren went home to shower and was grateful to see that Armin had packed him lunch. He was having a shitty day as it was that he didn't want to be late to that lab.

The lab coordinator had this stupid idea that if you were late or missed a lab it was an automatic fail, like who does that really. Eren showered quickly came out and wrapped his towel around his waist. He later went to his room to get something to wear, only to find that his underwear drawer was empty. "Shit! Was it my turn this month to do the laundry? Ah fuck I totally forgot. Crap. Well I guess I'll just go commando today and come back and do some laundry."

 

Eren got dressed in his only clean pair of jeans, and a nice hoodie. He walked out of his room and went to the kitchen counter. There he picked up his bag and placed it on the bar stool and began putting his school supplies in, he decided to put his lunch in his bag while he was at it. That's when he noticed that there were two lunch boxes. Eren guessed that Armin might have ran a little late for his class. He looked around and noticed that, the lunch box was the only thing Armin had left behind. All his binders and books were nowhere to be seen. "Perfect! This will get me an excuse to have lunch with Armin and pretend today didn't happen. Maybe he might even come up with a way out of this." Eren said as he placed Armin's lunch beside his own and zipped up his backpack and headed back to campus for his lab.

  
As he was leaving he recalled that today he had cadaver lab, he ran back inside and went to get his lab coat and some gloves. As well as some of his old cue cards. "Shit! What lab session is it today?" He said as he rummaged through his desk, which surprisingly was well organized. He found the lab outline, he looked at it and it seemed to be session 4. "Sweet! Muscles and bones of the arm and hand. Ok now where did I put my cue cards about this?"

Eren had some nice pile of cue cards in a recipe box. He pulled out the section labeled arm. The batch of cue cards were all attached by a silver looking ring from the top left corner. A trick he picked up from his lab instructor when he was a first year. It truly made things easier to study and keep organized.

He looked over it quickly to make sure everything was there. "Ok let see, muscles, origin and insertion. Check. Action, check. Innervation of nerves, check. Major arteries and veins, check. Bones, check. Oh and that's right. The cubital fossa. God was that ever a bitch to do on one of the exams." Eren shivered as he recalled the exam and bell ringers. He put the cards and gloves in his pant pockets and tucked his lab coat under his arm and left his apartment. If he was lucky and ran he would make it to his first lab in time.

  
In the meantime Jean was not paying much attention in class still angry at what happened, all he knew was that he and Eren were innocent. If anything they would just get charged for negligence or something like that. He just needed keep going for the day, which meant going home to make lunches and do a live stream for his site. He had already promised some of his viewers that he would. Class ended and Jean went straight to his apartment.

"Marco am back." He said as he entered their shared space. There was no responds, perfect. Well now who was going to keep him on track during the live stream. He guessed he would have to get his computer to record it and save it for editing later to post the recipe on his YouTube and Instagram. He grabs his computer and puts it on the kitchen bar thing they had.Truly he found it useless except for holding his computer for live streams or the camera for his other videos.

He grabbed his apron, the one Marco got him when they were still in high school. It had writing on the front and it said 'I bake because punching people is frowned upon’. Then he got things started, he put on his game face smile which would eventually turn into the real thing and tried to forget what happened in the morning.

"Hey everybody, so glad you could join me for a live stream. Some of you have been asking to see what I do for lunches when both me and Marco are busy. Well I am here to show you. Don't forget write your questions as I will answer them as I get them." As soon as he said that He got his first question from one of his viewers.

NotaPotato ‘Where is Marco?’

"Oh already a question, it says where is Marco? Hahaha it seems he has become more popular than me since he debuted as my assistant in a previous videos and streams. Oh another message."

Senpai_in-kitchen ‘Marco stole the show that one time walked in without a shirt to grab a glass of water.’ Jean decided to ignore that one.

"You’re all so curious about Marco's where about. He's currently in class and I am here to show you what I am going to make for him."

NotaPotato ‘He's got ya whipped!’

Senpai_in-kitchen ‘WHIPPED!’ and similar comments from other viewers appeared.

"Why does everyone think he's got me whipped?" Jean said as he walked towards the fridge. Their kitchen was small enough that he could walk anywhere and still be on the screen. "Seriously guys there is nothing going on, he's just my best friend and roommate. Plus if we wanna actually eat and not burn down the place we are living in, then I cook. It's just that simple." He said as he pulled a few things from the fridge and then went to rummage the cupboard for anything else he could use. He kept talking to his viewers as he went back to the counter that was just below the kitchen bar.

  
"So clearly we haven't gone grocery shopping yet, so you guys will get the real experience of how I make meals when we have little to nothing in the house. Sigh, we should probably go get some stuff later today if we wanna eat something for dinner."

Pink-queen ‘Maybe you guys should eat out’

"Great idea Pink maybe we should eat out." As soon as those words left his mouth he quickly regret it, all his viewers kept sending messages about it being a date or how Marco should treat him to a date.

  
"Guys, guys settles down we are not here to talk about my personal life. No it would not be a date as unfortunately Marco is straight. Now what we have today is some homemade whole wheat sliced bread, a green apple, some alfalfa, mayo and the emergency food in case a natural disaster comes and destroys us the amazing tuna in a can." The right side of his screen just kept going crazy with questions like, you eat tuna? Or wait does that mean you’re gay?

"So to answer your questions. Yes we eat tuna on rare occasions and we mainly keep it and some other canned food, like I said for survival. Blame that on Marco he always liked to be prepared for the worst. No, am not straight. So what you need to do now is wash you green apple and rinse the alfalfa. Put the alfalfa on a paper towel and grab your apple wedged to evenly cut the apples." As Jean went through the motions of prepping for making food he continued to answer his viewers’ questions which mainly pertained to his private life.

  
"Do I like somebody? Yes. Ok so today we are making a healthy green tuna sandwich. When did I know I was gay? Well I guess it was the day Marco made his Kraft dinner explode." Jean stopped at that point and full on told his viewers the story.

"Like seriously guys, who makes that happen? He put all the ingredients together because he thought it would be a great idea and speed up the process, then he covers it with a lid that's too small. So the lid gets stuck at one point and by the time I get the phone call to come and save his sorry ass. Well he pretty much made an atomic pressurized bomb of Mac and cheese. I come running in and I swear I walk into the kitchen to find it all covered in pasta and cheese. And Marco hiding under his kitchen table crying. I quickly turn off the stove and as I turn around to ask him if he's ok, he body checks me into a hug. He was so scared I didn't know what to do."

  
By now Jean is leaning on the counter, his head resting on one of his hands and a faint blush dusting his cheeks. He smiled at that memory. "He was shaking so much. I picked him up and carried him to the couch. I figured we could clean things later. And back then I was taller and stronger than him, so it was easy. I sat him down but he wouldn't let go. So I rubbed his back as he cried on my shoulder. I had seen Marco cry before but never like this. Any who that look he gave me as he body checked me into a hug, like I was his savior or the only thing that mattered, and the way he clung to me afterwards. That's when I knew I had feeling for Marco that weren't just the friendship kinda love. At that moment I was glad he had called me and no one else. Had someone else held him like that I would have...I don't know killed them maybe. Hehe. Well enough of that back to the sandwich."

  
That just brought more questions about his personal life and Jean answered them as he showed them how to make the sandwich. "Yeah so I have feelings for Marco, clearly I always have. So make sure you fully drain the tuna, then place it in a bowl. Add one teaspoon of mayo, a bit of pepper and mix. No Marco doesn't know. We never talked about it. Yes I dated girls before. That was mainly cuz we went to a catholic school and my parents are super religious and it’s expected of me to end up with a girl. Once it's mixed well, set to the side. Now add the alfalfa on the bottom then place the some of the tuna mix. Well about an heir, hmm?"

  
Jean shrugged as he went to the fridge once more for some lettuce. "Well if that's my parent’s only concern relating to me being gay then that's easy. So I forgot to pull the lettuce out so just give it a quick rinse and pat it dry with a paper towel. I'll just adopt or if they are worried about it not being blood related I'll pay and get a surrogate mother. I'll make sure she lives with me during the pregnancy so I can monitor what she eats. After all I want my kid to have the best from the start. So once the lettuce is dry place it on the other bread slice, you may want to use a tiny bit of mayo to make it stick. Why I can't do that with Marco and how I know his straight if I haven't asked? Well he's only ever dated girls. Like we always ended up going on double dates so I know how he looks at them with such tenderness. And he has this dream of having a nice family, he wants his babies to have blond hair and his freckles. His major is genetics you would think he knows that freckles and dark hair are dominant so I don't know what he's smoking thinking his child will be fair, with light hair and all that jazz. Then you place the apple wedges on the tuna. Cover it with the already prepped slice of bread with lettuce. Slice it on a diagonal, wrap it in a napkin and put it in a tupperware, and you’re done."

  
Jean's viewers just kept messaging at how cute he was and that maybe Marco was not as straight as Jean thought.

"And that's that, the recipe I will post it when I upload an obviously edited version of this, and see you all next time. Drop a comment on my Instagram and let me know what you guys would like me to make next time. Have a great day and thank you for joining me, bye."

  
With that Jean turned off the live stream. "Argh I can't believe I said all that! Holy shit what time is it?" He looked at the screen, 10:50 am and then shut his computer down. "Oh phew Marco is still in class or in his lab at this hour, there is no way he got to see this whole mess. Ok well I should clean up, finish packing my lunch. Then go get Bodt and make sure he eats lunch instead of being dragged into another one of Dr. Zoe's experiments."

With that Jean left to go see Marco.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing for Eren and Jean's program just brings back memories of university. Some good others not so much, however Eren has the best TA job ever. I miss those labs, but Jean also gets to make kick ass food that's healthy with less struggles than I do lol


	5. The Lab

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We finally get to see where Marco "works" and Hange gives Marco an special invitation

Marco was busy in his lab working on combining DNA from one cell to that of another and then placing it in a prokaryotic cell. His laptop beeped at him letting him know Jean had started his live stream, Marco wanted to watch it or at least hear Jean talk while he worked. Yet the laptop was on his desk and that was too far away, besides what he was currently doing required a lot of attention.

That's why he was grateful that he let his cousin Ymir tinker with his laptop when he thought it was going to die. Not only did she extend the life of his prehistoric machine but also gave it some neat tricks. Like this one, whenever Jean did a live stream, the laptop would beep letting him know it was starting to record the event without him needing to do anything. However the catch was that Jean had to film it on his pc. Ymir had neglected to tell Jean that when she update both their laptops. Eventually Marco questioned her as his laptop would beep and he wasn't sure why. That's when Ymir explained the whole thing, they decided not to tell Jean but that's what you get when your cousin is a part time hacker and part time developer.

  
Marco didn't know how long he had been working until there was a knock on the lab door followed by the person opening the door with "Did someone order lunch for a Marco Bodt?" Marco smiled at that and without looking up from his work he waved him in.  
"Hi Jean, just give me a few more minutes I just need to transfer the content to a vile that contains enough nutrients for the newly nucleated cell to grow." Jean walked up to Marco's desk and sat in his chair as he talked.  
"Sure, whatever you say."

Jean put the lunches on the desk and his backpack on the floor under the desk, then he spotted Molbit coming out from another room carting a bunch of stuff.

"Hey Molbit, need any help?"  
"Oh yes please! Dr. Zoe is trying something out and I am pretty sure it's going to explode."

"Why? Is she not under the fume hood?" Jean said as he got up and went to help Molbit bring things into Marco's lab from the other room, Marco was too used to this to even be bothered by it any more.

  
"She said she doesn't get full range of motion and not enough of an up close look at things when she used it." Jean and Molbit entered the other room not even bothering to say anything to Dr. Zoe as she wouldn't acknowledge them when she is too engrossed in her experiments. They grabbed the rest of the equipment and left the room. There wasn't that much to begin with as Molbit tried to limit the amount of stuff Hange was allowed to keep there to limit collateral damage.

  
"You would think that the people funding your work would know by now that she blows things up all the time right." Jean said as he placed the equipment on one of the tables.  
"I know, but at least they don't mind paying for the damaged goods, however they have asked we try to keep it to a minimum. Hence me moving things before it explodes." Molbit placed down the equipment he was carrying on the table and turned to close the door to the other room, leaving Hange and her experiment alone.

  
"Well why don't they just make a Dr. Zoe proof lab? That would save them money, wouldn't it?"  
"That wouldn't work, Dr. Zoe would just do something to prove them that their lab was not as indestructible as they thought." Marco said as he stood up from his seat and stretched. This was followed by a boom noise from said person's lab room. Hange opened the door coughing and smiling, she was covered in black soot but it didn't seem to bother her in the least.

  
"Ah Marco...cough cough... I was hoping I would catch you before lunch, there is something I have been meaning to tell you since yesterday." Marco smiled and sighed  
"Dr. Zoe, you could have told me in the morning meeting."  
She just waved him off, "Yes, yes of course now get your butt over here." She walked out of the other room and toward her desk on the back end of the lab room. "Oh I know I put it in here somewhere. Molbit dear, have you seen the envelops I brought with me this morning."

Molbit excused himself from Jean and went over to Hange.  
"Dr. Zoe you gave them to me for safe keeping." He said as he pulled them out of his lab pocket and handed one to her, the others he put them back.  
"Of course I did, how did I forget!" She face palmed. "One last thing Molbit, why don't you take Jean to feed some of the lab rats while I have a chat with Marco." Hange said as she leaned back on her desk.

"Sure thing Dr. Zoe." Molbit went back to Jean, Jean having been able to overhear their conversation just followed Molbit out of the lab room.

  
"Now it's not that I don't want Jean to come, but I wanted to make sure that the decision to go will be because you want to." She told Marco as she poked him in the chest.

"In my hand I hold an invitation to a one of a kind event. It's a formal gala thing, so dress sharp, but that's not the important part. What's important is who's running it and who will be there. You are a very smart boy Bodt, with a bright future. However not many people or companies see things the way we see them, and give much less freedom to do 'certain' research. I would like you to come work for us after you graduate and I am sure the higher ups would be happier with someone who doesn't blow things up every few minutes. Now for the catch, you just have to attend these weird events every time they throw one and socialize, and by that they told me that it meant to act like a normal person, whatever that is. If you attend I would like to introduce you to a few of my long-time friends and colleagues which will help you when you apply for the job. I can't hire you on the spot but once you meet these people, hiring you will become a breeze. They won't think that I dug some crazy out of the ground to help me, but instead they will know that you are a smart and charming young man."

  
"Wow Dr. Zoe!" Marco exhaled in excitement as he ran his hands through his hair. "I don't know what to say. The fact that you are offering an undergrad like me such an opportunity not only to work with you in the future but to meet the ones that fund our research, it's an honour."

Hange handed him the envelop that contained the invitation and two tickets.  
"Well all you have to do is bring a date." She said with a smile.  
"A date?" Marco looked down at the envelop he had just received like it held the answers to the universe.  
"Well yes. Open it and read it if you don't believe me. Am taking Molbit as the higher ups think he can keep me away from 'danger'." Hange said she did air quotations around danger and imitated what Marco assumed to be one of the higher ups that had told her that.

  
"But anywho I need your confirmation Bodt...”  
"Yes of course I will be there."  
"Good, and I suggest you take Jean as your date."

  
Marco's eyes where the size of dinner plates at that comment. "I ...but we" Hange got off the desk and started walking towards the lab exit.  
"Oh hush hush Bodt, no one cares who you bring, what gender you identify as or your sexual orientation. So just ask him. Or better yet bribe him." She turned around and winked at him as she exited the lab room, leaving Marco on his own.

Marco sighed as he plopped down on Hange's chair. This was a big thing! It's something that could define him in life, a job where he could do any experiment he ever thought about, and every invention or idea Jean and him had ever talked about. And then there's Jean. How was he going to ask Jean to accompany him and if he would be willing to go, after all he has a very busy work schedule recently. His thoughts were interrupted as he looked up when someone called his name.

  
"Marco? Buddy you ok?"  
Marco sighed it was just Jean, "Yeah am fine." Jean approached him carefully and knelt in front of him.  
"You sure? You were staring pretty intensely at that envelope, I seriously don't know what it did to offend you. Oh wait shit! Not you too? Did Dr. Hange fire you?" Jean was starting to panic, he hadn't told Marco about the job issue just yet and if Marco got fired too how were they going to pay their rent and the rest of their schooling? His fears were abated as Marco began to laugh.

  
"It's not like that Jean, on the contrary she pretty much offered me a full time job as soon as I graduate." Jean didn't even give Marco a chance to finish as he jumped onto Marco, straddling him and gave him a hug.

  
"Dude that awesome! Congrats Marco." Marco wrapped his arms around Jean in a deep hug and placed his head on the crook of Jean's neck.  
"However there's a catch."  
"Oh" Jean said as he pulled away a little, "And what would that be? The blood of your first born?" Jean asked, given the grim look Marco had on his face when he walked in he expected it to be something terrible.

  
Marco smiled gently and shook his head, "Honestly where do you come up with this shit?"

"Marco, am half French and half German. Coming up with grim stories is like in my blood." Marco had to laugh at that, of course the boy who can't watch a scary movie without sneaking into Marco's bed afterwards says this sort of things.  
"No, no nothing that terrible, thank god. I wouldn't put it past Dr. Zoe though. After all there were some weird terms and conditions I had to agree to before I started working here."

  
"My point stands so what's the big catch?"  
With that Marco pulled Jean back into the hug "I must attend the annual gala and other events."  
"Well that doesn't seem that bad." Jean said as he tried to pull away from Marco to look at his face but Marco wouldn't budge. "I’m guessing there's more?"

Marco just nodded, and Jean sighed relaxing into Marco's embrace.

"Ok go on, rip the bandage already. But if she wants to keep you forever, I am not allowing that you belong with me Bodt! You got that!" Marco nodded his confirmation. This was Marco only chance to ever truly go on a 'date' with Jean, not like those fake double date he went on in high school. Yet he wasn't sure how Jean would react. "Am waiting" Jean sang, like a kid.

  
Marco sighed it was now or never, "Youjusthavetoalwaysbemydateforalltheseevents."

"Whaaat?" With that Jean pulled away, Marco was sure it was all over and grimaced. "Wait that's it? I just have to be your arm candy?" Marco looked up at Jean, he didn't look mad, he was actually smiling, and well that was weird.

  
Jean put his hands back on Marco's shoulders and leaned in close to his face. "Well if that's your way of asking me out Bodt?" Jean said in a sultry teasing voice, Marco just flushed bright red unsure as to where to look. He kept looking at Jean's lips and then to his eyes and back again to his lips.

Jean content with the response leaned in a bit more and then completely pulled away while getting off the other's lap and looked away. "Well come on Bodt at least you could take me out for lunch before such an important date."

Jean turned around with a smile and extended his hand to Marco. Marco gave a sigh of relief, at least this meant Jean wasn't angry at him. He took Jean's hand and pulled himself up. He noticed Jean had a slight blush on his cheeks. With a smile Marco decided to get back at his friend for the previous embarrassment.

  
"Well I didn't know you were that easy Jean, all I have to do is buy you lunch." Marco walked past him and back towards their forgotten lunches.  
"Hey!" Jean said with a scowl.  
"Now calm down, I just got take out from an excellent chef. It's a one of a kind place, very hard to get reservations and even harder to get the chef to agree to take out. But I managed just for you." Marco said as he held both of their lunches.

  
"Oh I didn't know you thought so highly of that place, mm?" Jean said as walked towards Marco and reached down to get his bag, while Marco walked backwards towards the exit. "Well only the best for my date."

  
"I do like getting pampered."  
"And oh boy do I know that." With that Marco opened the door and laughed causing Jean to throw his backpack at him, which missed and landed in the hallway.

"You’re so dead Bodt!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kinda love how Jean and Marco just tease each other. I can't wait till Ymir plays a bigger part in this.


	6. The Perks of Research

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Armin gets an invitation to the Gala, Eren gets lost in the psych building, Eren flirts with a receptionist and Armin gets jealous.

Eren walked out from class and headed towards the psychology building. It was in the other side of campus and he hated going in. It was a hell of a maze in that building, Armin had once told him that it was made that way to represent the complexity of the human mind.

Fuck the human mind why was it always so hard to find Armin's office? He was already dreading it and he hadn't even made it across campus. He had texted Armin before class letting him know that he was going to drop off his lunch and asking if he would have time to eat lunch with him. Eren got no response, he figured Armin was busy and that it would be best to just drop it off anyways. Once in the psychology building he headed through the path that Armin had showed him a thousand times towards said blond’s office.

He greeted a bunch of the other psych student as he walked there.  
"Hey Eren! How are you man?" Said Thomas Wagner as he was coming out from one of the many hallways.  
"Could be better, and yourself?"  
"No way school work already got you down this early on in the game?"

"Er you could say something like that I guess." Eren didn't want anyone else to have to know about what happened today.

  
"That sucks, I’m sure it will get better soon. As for me. Well I am running a few psych experiments as part of one of my classes. I have to help collect data for a grad student. Then I can use some of the data to write my research presentation. Which reminds me I came out here to get the next participant."

Thomas looked down at his clipboard "Uh Mina, Mina Carolina?" He looked around until he spotted the young lady with her hand raised. "I'll see you around Eren, say hi to Armin for me ok."

  
"Sure thing, take care." With that Thomas walked towards his test subject and brought her back to the hallway which he came from.

  
Eren went on his way and finally made it to Armin's office. He was so proud of himself, for once he didn't get lost or need someone to take him to see his friend. He had the biggest smile on his face, and then it dropped. He looked at the door and there was a sign it read 'Eren if you are looking for me, I will be running experiments with Dr. Smith in his office today. You should know how to get there but just in case there is a map on the back. Don't get lost and ask for help if you need it.-Armin'

"Well that sucks. And how am I supposed to know where that is Ar?! You have taken me to soo many rooms in this stupid building that I don't know where they are!" He took the note off the door, flipped it over and looked at the map. It was extremely well done. Armin was always really good in the art department but never fully used his potential. He followed the map through all the twists and turns, went down some stairs and back up on some others.

Eren's patience was running out, he was beginning to think he was completely lost. He hadn't seen a single person for a while now either so if he was truly lost, no one would think of looking for him in this isolated hallway! He kept walking. Suddenly he was in an open reception room, the area had four doors. One that led outside, one that read Dr. Smith, one that read washroom and the last he assumed was the room Armin was in. He had finally found it!

  
"Hello Eren. It's nice to see you again." Said the lovely receptionist, Eren remembered her face, yes he truly made it to the right place.  
"Hello Miss Potachio, how are you?" He walked up to the reception desk, oh he knew now that he was going to have fun waiting for Armin.

Miss Potachio is more lenient than the other receptionist. That one wanted perfect order and silence. She had kicked Eren out for fidgeting once.  
"I am well but suddenly feeling so much better now that you’re here." She said as she batted her eyes at him. Eren smiled, it seems like their game was already starting.

  
"Why Miss Potachio, you flatter me so." Eren said dramatically as he placed a hand on his forehead and another one to his chest. "I don't know if my heart can contain such joy." With that they both started laughing. Only halting when one of the doors opened. A blond head peaked out.

  
"Amanda, what's that noise?" Said blond looked at Miss Potachio and then at Eren and sighed.  
"ARMIN!! Is that you?" Eren said in shock.

Armin quickly put his delicate finger to his lips and shushed Eren.  
"I need you guys to keep it down, I am still in the middle of something here. And also Eren stop flirting with our receptionist." Armin said as he went back into the room and closed the door. Miss Potachio leaned back into her chair giggling.

  
"Oh my god Eren, you should look at your face." Eren was completely wide eyed and dropped jaw. He looked back to Amanda and pointed towards the door.  
"Was that really Armin!?!"  
"Shhh, my dear pull up a chair and we will talk, well whisper." Eren did as he was told.

  
"Ok so tell me why the hell Armin is dressed up like a girl?”

Armin was wearing a navy blue dress that matched his eyes perfectly, it was formfitting and had lovely heels to match. Eren had obviously paid a lot of attention to what Armin was wearing down to the last detail.

“I mean it does look good on him and it's not like it's the first time I have seen him dressed up like that, but the last time that happen I think it was the summer before high school and Mikasa dressed us both up. Actually no, scratch that. The last time was Halloween. We did a matching costume thing. I went as Kahl Drogo and he went as Kaleesi, from Game of Thrones you know. He looked so great that creepers started to pinch his butt and give him weird look so I made sure to stand beside him the entire time." While Eren finished off his rant, Amanda just looked at him with loving eyes and rested her head on her fist.

  
"Listen honey, the reason your boy here is dressed up as a girl is because there are doing an experiment about something to do with gender of the person doing the questioning and how it can affects the response of the subject. Something similar to good cop bad cop but with a sexy twist, I guess you could say.” Amanda said as she began playing with the ends of her hair.

  
“So does Dr. Smith also cross dress, cuz I don’t think it would look as good as it does on Armin.” Amanda truly had to hold in the laugh, she wiped a tear from her eyes

  
“Oh my Eren, you truly have the best imagination. I swear I love it when you’re here” she smiled at him, Eren was still slightly confused but smiled back nonetheless. “No Dr. Smith definitely does not cross dress for the experiment. The reason your boy is dressed like that is because the other interviewer they had for the study had some medical stuff she needed to attend to and is stuck in the hospital for the next little while. Before you ask no I don’t know what she has and I don’t know if she will be ok. Dr. Smith was not willing to give us any more. My guess it is something serious but they are trying to keep it hush hush, you know what I mean?” Eren nodded.

“Anywho so we are still on the lookout for another student that meets Dr. Smith’s criteria to fill that position. However in the meantime your boy here is doing a fantastic job at playing the part.” Eren nodded again, that seemed to make sense

  
“So Amanda? Where did he get that outfit? Like- I mean…” Eren rubbed the back of his head and began to fidget as his face turned a bit red. Amanda notice he was also no longer making eye contact with her, she just gave him a knowing smile.

  
“Oh that. I helped him out actually. Well we all kinda did a little shopping trip, mmmh I think it was maybe at the beginning of the month. Yeah, I think it was. Originally we went with something more conservative but it didn’t look as good and we weren’t getting the right response from the participants. So I managed to convince him and Dr. Smith to let me choose something more ‘girly/sexy’. And of course it worked.” Amanda seemed so pleased with herself.

  
“The clothes do fit him really well I gotta say. Good job Amanda, but really Dr. Smith went with you guys.”  
“He’s a lot more liberal than people think. I know he looks stern and mean at times but” she paused and waved for Eren to come closer as she whispered into his ear, “His husband is so much scarier.”

  
“What he’s married!” Eren exclaimed.  
“Shhhhhh!” Amanda waved her hands in the air to try and hush Eren, eventually both of their hands were on Eren’s mouth.

“Yes and no, like I don’t understand, maybe ask your boy.” She whispered as they dropped their hands from Eren’s mouth.  
“Why do you keep calling Armin my boy, seriously Amanda he doesn’t belong to me?”  
“Oh gosh Eren who are you kidding, honestly tell me you don’t” They were interrupted as the door to Armin’s room opened and Armin and the participant walk out.

  
“Now Mr. Fierro, please book the next appointment with Miss. Amanda here. Mr. Jaeger would you mind stepping into the office.” Armin said as he flashed him a smile and gestured towards the room. Eren swallowed, shit he recognized that smile, he was in trouble.

  
Amanda went back to work taking care of Mr. Fierro, even she recognized that smile by now and Eren walked towards the room looking like a kicked puppy. Armin was going to follow him in when Dr. Smith’s door opened.

  
“Ah Armin.” Dr. Smith said from the other room, “May I have a word with you in my office.”

“Yes of course Dr. Smith.”  
“Thank you and Mr. Jaeger I hope you don’t mind me stealing Armin for a few minutes.” Eren nodded still feeling like a kid at the principal’s office. Armin turned around to look at Eren

  
“Eren why don’t you go and make yourself comfortable on the chair I’ll be with you as soon as I can.” Now Eren could see that Armin seemed tired, he figured it was partially his fault as he couldn’t get up out of his own accord.  
“Ok Armin.” He said as he sat in the comfy patient chair. Armin closed the door and walked over to Erwin’s office and allowed himself in.

  
“You wanted to see me Dr. Smith.”  
“Yes Armin, please close the door and sit down.” Dr. Smith said without looking away from the papers in his hands. Armin did as he said and sat down in the chair directly across from him.

Dr. Smith put the papers down on the desk between them, “First off I want to thank you again Armin for stepping up and willingly cross dress for this work. I am truly grateful for your determination and quick thinking for coming up with a solution to our conundrum so quickly.”  
“Not at all Dr. Smith, it’s my pleasure. Beside this study means a lot to me, the human mind is just so fascinating. Such a simple thing as gender, memories, relationship or scent can drastically alter perception and willingness to commit to things they never would.”

Dr. Smith gave him a pleased smile as he brought his hands in front of his chin, in his normal thinking pose.  
“I am glad to hear you are so fond of the research and the human mind. Now Armin, would you like to continue to do more experiments and research such as this in the future?”

Armin’s eyes widened for a second before returning to their normal size, of course he would, he was so excited he could hardly contain his excitement. “Yes of course!” Armin exclaimed, “I mean I would love to if given the opportunity.”

Dr. Smith gave a small laugh at the reaction his intern was giving,  
“No need to hold back or be shy Armin. After all I am sure that once you accept my offer we will be working together for a long time. Now for my proposition, I want you to work for me and my benefactors once you graduate from Reiss University. There are pros and cons to this that I would like you to take into consideration before you decide.” Dr. Smith paused, Armin nodded for him to continue.

Dr. Smith then pulled an envelope from his desk and slid it over the desk towards Armin, who picked it up and opened it to see two tickets and an invitation.  
“What you are holding in your hands is an invitation to a gala event held by our benefactor. It is the type of events that will be mandatory for you to attend, I cannot stress how important these are to our funding and research privileges.”

Once again Armin nodded and looked back at the ticket. “The perks are that we get complete freedom to run any research experiments we could ever think of as long as they are ethical of course. Meaning that the research can be done any place in the world you like and everything would be covered by the organization. As well we get the best chances to always attend the best conferences and publish our projects with minimum hassle. You will get to meet a lot of influential people from different career paths and it would be a great networking experience for you. Now for the cons to this, I guess it depends on how you view it. Personally I don’t mind however my partner and other colleagues seem to think it’s a waste of time and annoyance.”

  
Armin was now looking at Dr. Smith, and he could tell that the tender smile and look was not meant for him but for those people Dr. Smith seemed to be fond of.  
“It is mandatory to attend these event and any event presented by the organization. They like to parade the best they have to offer amongst their own organization and to their competitors. Hence the formal attire and importance on attending these events. The choice, however is yours to make Armin .”

With that Erwin let Armin think it through. It was a no brainer really, all he had to do was show up to events that could benefit him.

“I’ll do it.”  
“Very well Armin. I can’t formally congratulate you in joining the team as you have not yet graduated. Yet I can commend you making a wise decision.”  
“Thank you sir.”

“Now before you take your leave, as you can see there are two tickets. You must bring a date with you. Preference does not matter, neither does the type of relationship you may have. As long as they can behave accordingly anyone is welcomed. I would like to suggest taking young Mr. Jaeger with you, as I don’t think he would be fond of letting his partner out without him being present.”

  
“I will consider it, however Eren and I are not in that kind of relationship.”  
“Oh. My apologies if I have offended you in any way.”

  
With that Armin got up and took his leave of Dr. Smith’s office. As he closed the door he gave a big sigh, well at least it wasn’t because Eren was disrupting Amanda again. Just as he had thought about those two he opens his eyes to see Eren kneeling near Amanda’s legs. When the brunette locked eyes with Armin, he had a look on his face that screamed Oh shit!

“Eren I thought I told you to stay put in the room.” Armin said as he pinched the bridge of his nose and placed his other hand on his hip.

“I was Ar, but then I noticed that I left the lunches here so I figured it would be ok if I went and grabbed them really quickly.”

Eren was up and walking towards Armin’s office once again, while Armin followed close behind. Once in the room Armin closed the door and they both sat in Armin’s little office. Which was mainly comprised of two chairs, a little coffee table, a couple of plants and some pillows. It did conversely have a nice view to the garden outside.

“You’re not mad at me are you?” Eren pouted nervously as he placed the lunches on the coffee table and dragged it to be in between the two of them.  
“I don’t like you flirting with Amanda, and what were you doing kneeling by her legs? Do you know how inappropriate that looked?”  
“Armin! It’s not like that I swear.”

With that Eren jumped up from his seat and went and kneeled down in front of Armin and took hold of the others hands. Armin looked away and pouted a bit, his cheeks turning a nice rosy pink.

“Ar” Eren started as he looked at their joint hands, “I don’t like her like that. You know me and Mikasa are both gay and well Amanda is aware of it too. Ok I know the first time I did go a little too carried away, but once I explained it to her that I was only doing it so she could squeeze me in between your sessions it just became a game between the two of us.” Eren sighed and rested his head on Armin’s hands and lap.

  
“I know it just I don’t like it. I don’t like having you flirt with others or pretend to meet the status quote. I like who you are and you shouldn’t need to change or fake it like in high school so that neither one of us would get bullied.” Armin couldn’t really flat out tell Eren that he was just jealous because he only liked it when Eren flirted with him.

Armin sighed “I am sorry too, I shouldn’t have been that pissed off. I know it’s just a game but it really bugs me Eren.” He said as he detangled one of his hands from Eren and patted Eren’s gorgeous chocolate locks.

  
“Am I forgiven?” Eren asked not looking up but rather enjoying the attention from the blond, he secretly liked it when Armin became a bit possessive over him.  
“Yeah, but would you do me a favor?”

At that Eren looked up right away “Anything!”

  
“Will you come to a gala event with me?” Eren tilted his head to the side, he looked like a puppy, Armin could practically see ears on his friend and a tail wiggling behind him, it made him smile.  
“Sure, like I said anything Ar.” Eren said leaning further in so that he could rub the top of his head on Armin’s stomach getting a slight giggle from the other as Armin wrapped his arms around Eren.

  
“Good! By the way, I got offered a full time job after graduation.” With that they detached from each other, Eren however still left his arms resting on the others legs and his hands on Armin’s hips.

“What no way! That’s great Ar.”  
“Come on let’s eat we can talk about it more as we actually get some food in us.”

Eren nodded and reached behind him with one hand to hand Armin his lunch and then did it again to pull his closer. Armin was already eating by the time Eren barely pulled his lunch out of the lunchbox, Armin must have been starving. Eren kept eyeing Armin up and down, Armin eventually noticed

“What? What is it you keep staring, does it not look good?”  
Eren put his lunch down beside his legs, “No it’s not that. Not at all. On the contrary it looks amazing on you this blue dress. I think it fits you perfectly.”  
“Then what is it?”

“Well I was just wondering?” Eren said as squinted and leaned closer to Armin’s legs once again. “What kind of underwear are you wearing, that there is no visible pantie lines on the back of your dress?” with that Eren lifted up the tight skirt to take a peak.

  
“Eren!” Armin squeaked as he tried to pull the skirt back down and his face was bright red. Just their luck Amanda opened the door at that precise moment,  
“Armin your next participant, Mr. Silverthorn has arrived and is waiting for yooouuu.” She looked up from her notes and saw the compromising position he and Eren were in, “I can tell him to wait while you two finish what you’re doing.” She said

  
“Thanks Amanda” Eren said as she closed the door. All she could hear after was a loud thuck sound and Armin yelling “OH MY GOD EREN!!!” Amanda placed a hand over her mouth as she giggled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok this psych building, honest to god is real! I can tell you how much i despised going to that place. Best place to hide from anyone but good luck getting out on ur own. Hope you guys are liking it so far, pls feel free to leave comments here or on tumblr (chibichan449.tumblr.com)


	7. Home, Sweet Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chance encounters in elevators and new friendships :)

Jean and Marco had gone grocery shopping after school. Both of them had their hands full with reusable grocery bags that were stuffed to the max. They were talking animatedly as they arrived at their apartment.

“Ah crap! I don’t think I can pull my key without dropping the bags. Hey Marco how about you?”  
“Jean, my hands are literally full, but we could use our head and put the bags down and get the keys out.”  
“Hell no! These bags go on the kitchen counter! There is no way they are touching the floor. Think of the germs. Nope! Just dig your hands into my pocket and fish them out would you.”

Marco shook his head and sighed. They were both balancing their groceries and trying to get the keys out of Jean’s pants when a shorter blond individual came from behind and opened the door for them.

  
“It seems like the two of you could use some help.” Marco and Jean both smiled at him,  
“Thank you so much.” Marco said.  
“No problem. However, you know you could have just put the bags down so you could open the door. It’s just a suggestion, I figured it might make it easier for your next trip.”

Jean just walked in and headed for the elevator, the only time they ever take it is when they go shopping.  
“I know that’s what I keep telling him but he insists that it’s unhygienic.” With that both Marco and the petite blond laughed. “Thank you again and see you around I guess.”  
“No problem.”

With that Marco went to join Jean, who was trying to push the button to call the elevator. “Need a hand.”  
“Nope I got this.” He said as he scowled and had his tongue poking out in concentration. Jean readjusted his bags a bit and managed to press the button to call the elevator. “See I told ya! I got it.” He turned around and gave a shit eating grin to Marco who just smiled and shook his head.

As they got in they heard the voice of the blond who had helped them open the door.  
“Hold the elevator please.” Jean clicked the button to keep the door open while Marco stuck out his foot to prevent the doors from closing. The blond ran in followed by a brunette male who was soaked from head to toe.

  
“Holy crap I can’t believe it just began to pour out of nowhere.” Said the brunette as he began to take off his hoodie. Jean had just pressed the button for the sixth floor and asked “So what floor?”

Marco and the blond were on the other side just smiling at each other while Jean and the brunette stood side by side.  
“Eighth, if you don’t mind?” Jean grunted a response and hit the button.  
“Ar, am stuck help me pull it off?”  
“Sure.” The blond walked from his corner towards the taller male who was currently trapped in his soaked hoodie.

Jean was wondering where he had heard that voice before, well they were neighbours in a way maybe they had ran into each other before. He just couldn’t pinpoint why it irritated him so when they taller one talked.

“Pull harder Armin.”  
“I am Eren but it’s just ... umph. There it came off.”

With just that sentence Jean’s eyes blew wide open, he looked directly at Marco first. ‘Please oh please read my mind and realize that this is the fucker that got me fired.’ Marco barely caught the look Jean was giving him when the Eren boy began to talk again.

“Phew, that’s better. Any who thanks so much for saving the elevator for ... us.” Eren’s voice just dropped once turned around to see who was by the elevator panel. “Jean!” he exclaimed to which the other growled  
“Eren!”

  
“The fuck are you doing in MY building?”  
“Your building! The fuck Eren I live here.” With that the good mood was ruined and the two of them began to bicker.

“Oh shit!” Armin and Marco said simultaneously, and looked at each other.

It was clear they knew of their friend’s rivalry and animosity towards each other. Marco and Armin went to their friend’s side and tried to stop them before a real fight broke out.

Armin grabbed Eren by the arm and dragged him to the opposite side of the elevator making sure Eren was the one closest to the wall. “Eren, please calm down. This is not the time nor the place for this.”

Marco stood in between Jean and Armin and tried to block Jean’s view of Eren. “Jean come on behave, for gods sake. What are you a five year old?”  
“Marco I can be a five year old if I want to.That fucker is the reason I have no job!” He retaliated, Marco sighed trying to calm down.

  
“What! MY FAULT! Are you fucking kidding? You’re the ass hole that got me fired bitch!”

“Eren stop, this is highly inappropriate behavior. I agree with Marco, you both are acting like children.”  
“But Armin.” Eren responded with a whine.

Eren and Jean just kept throwing insults at each other but at least they stayed to their respective sides of the elevator. Armin and Marco were clearly at their limit by now and it had been a long and busy day for the two of them.

  
“Ok that is enough both of you stop right now!” Marco yelled. Jean immediately froze there was no way he was messing with Marco when he used that tone. Eren also seemed to shut up.

  
“Now it’s clearly that you lost your jobs because neither of you was paying attention, but the one who initiated all this was this Mrs. Stark.” Marco nodded as Armin said this, “At least from what I heard and I am assuming that Marco heard a similar version. It is Marco right?” Marco nodded, “Is that you were both told not to fight, fist off and secondly.” Armin paused, “You would both be at the police station if your boss didn’t believe or know that you were both innocent. Think about it.”

  
“I agree with… am sorry I didn’t catch your name?”  
“Armin.” They both shook hands and introduced each other, leaving Jean and Eren to stare at each other dumbfounded. “Marco, Marco Bodt. Jean Kirschtein’s keeper.”

“Armin Alert, Eren Jaeger’s owner.”  
Before either one of them could continue their lecture the elevator binged and the doors opened, “Well that’s our floor.” Marco said as Jean booked it out from the elevator, knowing full well that if he didn’t behave Marco was not going to be happy and he was out of cookies.

  
“It’s nice to meet you Marco.”  
“Likewise Armin. It’s unfortunate we had to meet in such circumstances.” Marco said as he stood at the threshold to prevent the doors from closing.  
“I know what you mean. Uh do you mind if I request something from you?” Armin approached Marco.

  
“Not at all, what can I do for you?”  
“Seeing as our problem kids seem to be living in the same building, I thought it might be wise if us adults had a way to prevent them from killing each other.”  
“Great idea, I can’t really pull my phone out at the moment but I can give you mine and you can just text me.” Armin nodded, he pulled out his phone and took down Marco’s number.

“It was nice meeting you and sorry about Jean.”  
“Yeah, sorry Eren caused such a racket” They smiled at each other one last time as Marco backed away from the elevator.

“Marco hurry your ass up I need you to help me with the door.” Jean grumbled and mumbled some more.  
“I’m coming, hold your horses Jean.” Marco said as he walked towards his apartment door, however before the door could close complete Eren had to get the last word in.  
“Hear that horse face! Hold still for a while. Hahahahaha!” with that the elevator closed and Armin and Eren were on their way.

  
“That mother fucker, I swear I will kick his ass next time.”  
“Jean! Please watch your language there are children in this building.” Jean frowned and snorted and at that moment Marco couldn’t deny the fact that his friend reminded him of a horse with that attitude, plus he was kicking at the ground which looked more like a horse stomping. Marco couldn’t help but giggle at that.

  
“What?”  
“Nothing.”  
“Yeah right, what is it?”  
“Nothing! Now hold still so I can get the keys out of your pocket. But honestly next time we should put the lanyards we got in our frosh week to good use so this doesn’t happen again.”  
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”  
“I said hold still.”  
“Just hurry up Marco.”  
“Why are your pockets so deep and what the hell do you keep in them? Ah got it them.”  
“Finally, now hurry I need to pee.” Jean said bouncing on his feet for emphasis, as Marco fought with the keys and the door to get it open.

 

 

Back in the elevator Armin crossed his arms and glared at Eren, “Eren! Seriously”  
“What?” the other said trying to play innocent.  
“You know very well what. You just had to go add more fuel to the fire didn’t you.” Armin just sighed and leaned on the wall shaking his head. The elevator dinged and the doors opened. The two of them exited the elevator and walked down the hall quietly towards their apartment door. Armin opened it while still holding Eren’s soaked sweater.

“Eren just go shower I don’t need you catching hypothermia or anything like that.”  
“It’s not that bad Armin. I mean yeah the storm came out of nowhere and it just began to pour but I’ll be ok.”  
“Shower now!”  
“Yes mom.”

Eren begrudgingly padded his way to the shower, while Armin went to hang Eren’s sweater by the window. It wasn’t going to dry tonight but tomorrow if there was sun it would dry in no time. With that Armin went to the kitchen to see what he could make for them for dinner.

Armin opened the fridge to find some leftover chicken. He didn’t really feel like cooking and the chicken was already cooked, so that was a definite yes. Now what else could he add to it without having to do too much work. As he rummaged through the fridge, he found in the back one of those pre packed Caesar salad things. ‘Perfect! We are having chicken Caesar, I hope Eren’s ok with that’ Armin thought to himself. As he got to work on making dinner and setting the table.

Eren was struggling to get some of the wet clothes off in the bathroom. “God damn it. Why is it so hard to take off wet clothes!” he complained to himself. Eren stumbled a couple of times struggling to take them off and nearly fell a few times. It was embarrassing, thank god no one was there. Seriously a personal trainer with shit balance, who has ever heard of such a thing.

As the warm shower got rid of all the tension in Eren’s body, he began to think about the day’s event. It had been a chaotic day. Everything was going smoothly with Mrs. Thornton and he and Jean were working well together. He didn’t want to admit it but at that moment he figured him and Jean would have been a really good combo. Like maybe he could be someone he could partner up with and open their own place. They didn’t need to communicate that much to get the other to understand what the plan was, but that all went straight to hell when Mrs. Stark showed up. Fuck that woman! Eren was not going to be able to watch any movies with Ironman in them for a while without wanting to punch the screen.

Eren’s violent train of thought was interrupted by a knock on the door. The door opened a bit and Eren could hear Armin’s voice. Eren pulled the glass shower door open a bit to hear better, letting the stream fill the bathroom.

“What?”  
“It’s pardon and I said if it was ok for me to take your wet cloths and hang them up to dry?”

“Oh yeah sure, thanks Ar.”

Eren closed the door to the shower and Armin picked up Eren’s wet clothes and exited the bathroom.

Eren was back in his mind after that, after all showering is just a mindless task. His mind wandered back to the blond that had been there not so long ago. He was glad Armin had changed back to his regular clothes before they went home. He wouldn’t have wanted horseface to see Armin looking so hot. The matter of fact, he kind of didn’t want anyone seeing Armin like that at all. Armin looked so good in anything he wore but that navy blue dress was something else.

The way it clung to Armin’s figure and the way it made his eyes shine was just … gorgeous? No, not the right word, it didn’t fully captivate how Eren felt his best friend looked.

It was charming combination between masculine and feminine. He really liked the way the dress hits on his waist, how the fabric framed his chest and clung to his hips and thighs. Armin was some sort of celestial angel, his round blue eyes were nicely outlines by some classic black liner on his upper lid that made his eyes appear like sparkling moons that Eren was so drawn too and had a very strong need to explore.

And what was on his lip? Eren wondered. They looked like ripening fruit, just like a berry glowing in bright readiness. His lips were so full and glossy, similar to sweet morning dew waiting to be kissed. Eren was willing to take and taste that fruit even if it banished him from Eden, just a taste from that fruit could lead him to uncharted territories. A new world that he was willing to explore, Eren was convinced that this new world, no matter what challenges he may face is better than an Eden without Armin.

  
Then there was the way Armin walked in those heels, the sway of his hips and his behind. It was hypnotizing like the swaying back and forth of a pendulum, which brought Eren’s train of thought back to the type of under garment Armin was wearing to pull it all off. He went through many images of his best friend dressed in nothing but a vast variety of undergarments. Some were more feminine that other and some were less innocent than they should have been.

  
Before Eren had was fully conscious of what he had been doing as his mind was all wrapped up in Armin, his hand had become quite preoccupied going back and forth on his growing erection. Eren only became fully aware that he was jacking of to his best friend as he achieved release.

  
His face turned bright beet red when he realized what he had done, how was he going to face Armin now. And it’s not like he could avoid him, after all their apartment wasn’t that big and they were always together. It would be more awkward and weird if he began avoiding his friend. Eren quickly turned the shower off, he reached for his towel only to be meet with the metal bar. ‘

The fuck?’ Eren thought as he fully opened the shower door to look for the towel. It wasn’t there, ‘The hell did I put it then?’ Eren got out of the shower and began looking around, but it couldn’t be found. He figured he could always just steal Armin’s which was usually kept it in the shower but no such luck. ‘How did I forget to bring it in? Oh well I guess I’ll just have to sprint to my room’

Eren slowly opened the door. The coast was clear and he booked it to his room. Armin was just bringing the salad to the living room when he caught glimpse of Eren’s butt as he ran to his room, of course Eren would forget to bring a towel to the bathroom. He continued to set the table only to be interrupted by Eren’s swearing. Armin was a bit concerned now, so he approached Eren’s door and lightly knocked on it.

  
“Eren? Is everything ok?”  
“Ah fuck, yeah everything’s fine Armin. Shit actually, do you still have those really baggy sweat pants from high school?”  
“Yeah” well that was weird, why would Eren want those pants.

"Could I possibly, maybe borrow them for tonight?” Ah so that’s what it was, Eren forgot to do the laundry again.

“I don’t know, should I let you borrow them? Hmmm.”  
“Come on Armin please?” Now he could hear Eren padding his way towards the door to just open it enough for the wet mop of his head to be visible, “Please Ar I kinda need something to wear.” Armin crossed his arms and sighed while looking at the teal ocean of Eren’s eyes.

  
“You forgot to do laundry again didn’t you?” Eren nodded admitting that it was his fault. “Fine. I’ll get them but you have to promise me you will do the laundry this week. Actually I think tomorrow would be ideal, seeing as you are jobless at the moment.” Armin said as he turned on his heels towards his room.  
“That’s below the belt Armin.”

Armin just waved him off and disappeared into his room.

Eren was staring at this toes and fidgeting as he waited for Armin, when the other showed up he handed Eren said high school sweat pants.

“Here.” Armin practically pushing the pants on to Eren. “I swear you need adult supervision to survive Eren.”  
“No I don’t!” Eren retorted,  
“Honey you can’t be trusted to live on your own, and besides if you’re only missing pants why haven’t you put on a shirt at least?”

Eren went bright red and slammed the door shut,  
“Shut up Armin.” The other just laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have meet weird people in elevators and some of the nicest people too. Its always fun to see how people react when they are forced to, muahahah, lol  
> Let me know what you guys think of the fic and if you have any suggestions for what should happen next.  
> My Tumblr: chibichan449


	8. Tuxes and Livestream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just very domestic scenes. Eren finally does some cleaning and Jean gets called a housewife

For once Armin got up without a real purpose. Well he had class later and research after that but he didn’t have anything to do in the morning. He didn’t have to wake up Eren for work or anything. So he lay in bed, he closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep but nothing. He tossed and turned trying to find a comfortable position, to no avail. So he opted for reading a book instead.

He was currently in the middle of ‘O is for Outlaw’ by Sue Gafton. He truly enjoyed mystery novels and when bored he would read and re-read the Sherlock Holmes series. He was so engrossed in his reading that he wasn’t keeping track of time and only looked at his phone when there was a knock on his door.

“Armin? I am coming in I need to get the laundry.”  
“Come in.” Armin said as he was laying on his stomach, arms propped on his pillow and the blankets draped over his lower back. Eren came in and went straight to Armin’s laundry basket, unlike him Armin actually kept his room more organized. There were a few items laying around but it was definitely neater than Eren’s room.

  
“Hey Ar, I need you to get off the bed am doing the sheets as well.” With that Armin rolled to the right side of his bed while still reading. Only once he had finished the paragraph did he pick up the item that was his current book mark and placed it back in the book.

  
“So what’s the bookmark of the week this time?” Eren questioned as he began removing Armin’s bedding and said boy got up and stretched. There was an audible pop coming from Armin’s back as he did that before answering Eren’s question

  
”Mmmh, I believe it’s the invitation we got from Dr. Smith. I put it there so I wouldn’t lose it. Speaking of which.” Armin turned around to look at Eren “We need formal clothing and I doubt that our high school grad tuxes fit anymore so...”

  
“Argh! Armin you know I hate shopping for that stuff. First off its soooo expensive. Then there are all these options. Like the classic, the modern the slim and in those categories there are even more choices. Like why is there soo many? It takes forever to choose and then you have to hold still while they do the fitting and stuff.” Eren kept complaining as he collected some of Armin’s discarded clothes.

  
“I see your point, but either way we need one and it would be an investment. If we get them now we might be able to get a student discount. That’s fact one. Fact two, getting one now saves us the rush in the future, like grad and more of these events that I must attend from now on. So in conclusion, might as well just do it while we have time.”

Eren wasn’t happy about this turn of events but he can’t deny that if he wanted to go to these events with Armin he would have to get one. Eren mumbled an exasperated "Fine" and walked out of the room to let his roommate change.

  
Once Armin was ready he headed to their kitchen, “So Eren what are we having for breakfast?” he figured Eren probably made something for the two of them as he was ‘up first’. Eren was busy stuffing an extremely large laundry bag with as much clothing as he could fit in it. He didn’t want to do a second trip.

  
“There’s a pb&j sandwich on the counter, I was too lazy to make anything else.” Armin just walked over to said sandwich and began munching on it, as he ate he kept having a conversation with his best friend.  
“Ok so what we decided so far is, correct me if I am missing something. Tonight we have dinner out at your choice of restaurant. Then tomorrow we go get the tuxes and meet the girls for lunch at the mall?”

  
“That’s right. She texted me a hundred times this morning, clearly I didn’t get up when the phone buzzed, but any who. Yeah Mikasa and Annie said they wanted to hang out for either lunch or dinner and they are back from their business trip.”  
“Ok. Then I’LL make reservations for lunch or dinner at this nice little restaurant that I think they would appreciate.”

  
“Or we could go to a nice bar, I hear from some of my clients that there’s one down by Sina called the Barking Banana. And apparently it’s da bomb!”  
“Okay well we should message them and see what they wanna do and then plan things out.”  
Fine, I have only some classes this afternoon so while I do laundry I’ll ask them and then meet you for lunch?”  
“Not today, today she who must not be named is in.”

Eren hissed, he hated that receptionist and Armin wasn’t a fan of her either. “So I’ll meet you after your last class at the fire place lounge ok.”

“Roger that.” With that Eren picked up the large laundry bundle and went on his merry way to finally do laundry. Armin noticed that he was still wearing his sweat pants.

 

 

Marco got up, for once it was not to the smell of food or to swearing coming from the kitchen. Instead he actually got up to the sound of his alarm, he had completely forgotten what it sounded like. He stepped out and waddled towards the bathroom on his way there he caught a glimpse of Jean laying on the couch. As he came out of the bathroom he went to see what his friend was up to. “Morning Jean.” he yawned

  
“Hey” Jean looked up from his buckwheat breakfast bowl.  
“Couldn’t sleep in?”  
“Yeah” he sighed, “there’s breakfast in the fridge. I made it last night so that it would be ready for you in the morning but well I'm up so I could make you something warm if you want?”

  
“Nah, it's all good it looks good so I’ll just have that” he said as he went into the kitchen to get some food. Jean was just draped across the couch he put his bowl on their coffee table, 'today was going to be boring' he thought.

Marco came back from the kitchen his buckwheat matcha bowl in hand and stopped in front of the couch. Jean just mumbled but he sat up and took the right side of the couch. Marco sat on the other, their couch wasn’t big, it fit two comfortably and maybe three people without it being too crowded. As soon as Marco sat down and brought the first spoonful to his lips, he heard his name being whined and felt Jean lay a cross his lap like a cat.

  
“Maaaarcoooo~!” Marco just began patting the mop of blond hair on his lap.  
“What is it Jean”  
“Iginabehortingtoda”  
“What?”

Jean lifted his head from the other’s lap and turned so that he was now talking to Marco’s Tardi’s shirt.  
“I said, it's going to be boring today.” Jean whined again as he began to play with the hem of Marco’s shirt, he needed a new one.  
“I know, Fridays use to be your full day at the gym right?”

Jean was glaring at Marco’s shirt, deciding he was going to get him a new one for Christmas. This one was slightly too short, stretched out and it had a hole somewhere, if Jean recalled properly. “Jean?”  
“Yeah, it was.” Jean let go of the shirt in favor of facing the ceiling

  
“Well you can always do some stuff at home. Like work on some new recipes and I don’t know?”

Jean just nodded “I guess I could do that, plus this place needs a good cleaning.”  
“See there you go and you can finally catch of this season of Doctor Who. After all you don’t even know who Clara is.”  
“Spoilers.” Jean said imitating River.  
“As if you care.”

They grinned at each other. Marco continued eating his breakfast but was once again disturbed by Jean nudging his side.  
Marco looked down to see what the other wanted and Jean responded by opening his mouth. “Jean you’re such a baby.” Jean responded by say ahh, which caused Marco to giggle as he spoon fed his friend.

“Why didn’t you just grab yours, it's literally right there.” He pointed towards the coffee table not even a foot away from them as he gave Jean another spoonful of his food. Jean finished what he had in his mouth before he spoke up  
“It’s just too far away Marco see.” Jean extended his hand towards the table in a pretend attempt to reach his bowl then faced Marco again and opened his mouth.

  
“I swear you’re so high maintenance, and I totally forgot how clingy you can be in the mornings.” Jean mumbled something along the line of “Am not!” as he turned to rub his face all over Marco’s shirt. Well at least the area closest to him.

  
“Jean…phfff… Ssttoop.” Marco tried to shove Jean off him with one hand as the other had a death grip on the bowl. In the meantime Jean just clung closer to Marco and kept tickling him with his nose and blowing a few raspberries here and there just because he felt like it. Marco was full on laughing by now, he put the bowl down in the space between Jean’s stomach and the couch.

He had to use both hands to pull the other away from his stomach, Jean got a few smacks to the head and shoulder in the process. As Marco’s fit of laughter died down, Jean got off his lap and grabbed both bowls and asked

  
“Are you going to finish it?” Marco looked up at that  
“Nah, I’ll take it for snack later.” Jean grunted and got up to pack Marco’s breakfast now snack for him and well he added whatever was left over from his into the container. “Hey Jean?” Marco called out from the couch,  
“Yeah.”

  
“I’ll be back early today. I just got an email from Dr. Zoe, she says that after class I should just go home. Well she wants me just transfer some of the stuff I was working on yesterday to an incubator if they were successfully fertilized.”  
“Ok, so you’ll be back by lunch am guessing?”

“I think so, it depends on how long it takes and if they have successfully implanted to the artificial uterine lining.”  
“Way too much information for this early in the morning, my brain does not compute.” Jean said as he walked back with one cup of tea for Marco and a cup of coffee for himself. Marco took the cup from Jean offering his thanks

  
“Sure, says the guy who on his day off is up at like 5 in the morning just chilling.”  
“I couldn’t sleep, force of habit.”

  
After they finished their drinks Jean took the cups to the kitchen while Marco got ready for school. Jean was cleaning up the kitchen as Marco went to pick up his snack from the counter where Jean had left it. He then went to the entrance to put on his sweater, it had started to get chilly now and the leaves were beginning to change colour.

“Jean dear!” Marco called from the entrance,  
“What!” Jean yelled back  
“Come here would you.”

Jean was drying his hands on a towel as he walked towards Marco, “What?” he grumbled. Marco was putting on his shoes as Jean arrived.

  
“Stop grumbling so much it's much too early for that.” Jean just rolled his eyes at Marco but gave him a smile nonetheless.  
“That’s better, now be a good housewife and give you working husband a goodbye kiss.”

Jean’s eyes were huge and he turned bright red, how can Marco say such things and not even bat an eye at what he’s saying, god he hates him sometimes. With that said Jean just grabbed his towel and began hitting Marco with it

  
“What makes you think am a housewife in the first place? And what the hell Marco?” Marco laughed as he took the beating, once Jean was done with what he thought was sufficient for that comment Marco gave him his answer.

  
“Well while I was getting ready it just made think that you were acting just like a housewife and I felt so lucky. I get to go to school and work and come home to have food and a clean house and someone to hang out with.”  
“Fuck you. I ain’t going to do any of that shit for you. And the only reason I am cleaning today is cuz I don’t like to live in a shit hole. So Fuck off.” Marco laughed a bit more at that and this time Jean was close enough to just smack him in the arm with his hand.

  
“Ok, ok whatever you say dear.” He got another smack for that one too. “But anyways, I was hoping after lunch we could check if the tuxes we use the last time for our parents’ formal events still fit and are in nice conditions. If not well, we should go get new ones for the gala. It's coming up pretty soon so might as well.” Jean nodded, crossed his arms over his chest as he draped the towel over his shoulder and leaned on the wall.

  
“Yeah I’ll look into that too.” Marco smile, he knew Jean hatted going to those events with his parents and those outfits just brought back shitty times for him. So Marco leaned up and gave Jean a peck on his cheek which brought the other out from his thoughts. Marco had his bag over his shoulder and his lunch in hand as he stepped out the door.

“Now lock up and be a good wife give me a kiss and have something nice for when I get home love.”  
“Marco you fucker!” Jean said as he pushed the other out the door, “Out, out, out! Get out of my house and don’t ever come back.” Marco laughed the whole way out even when Jean slammed the door shut on his face. He was enjoying the agitated look on Jean’s face every time he teased him.

  
As soon as Marco was out the door Jean slumped to the ground by the door as his hands came up to cover his bright red face. “Marco you piece of shit!” he complained to no one in particular. Jean then toppled over and decided to just starfish on the floor. As he stared at the ceiling he thought to himself, 'I wouldn’t mind being a housewife if it meant I got to be Marco’s'. “Argh!” Jean just mumbled into his hands as he rubbed his face.

His hands eventually just ended up entangled in his hair as he tugged on the ends a bit, as he released a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Well I should get to work, this way if I get things done before Marco is back maybe I can even squeeze in a livestream.”

  
Marco arrived to their apartment complex by 11:55 am, it seemed like everything went well in the lab and now he would have to convince Jean to go get a tux with him. He was 99% sure his was too small for him now and that Jean hadn’t gotten a new one since their last year of high school. Jean tried to boycott as many of the events as possible, especially once Jean’s parents told him to bring a real date not just Marco.

Marco went up the flight of stairs, once on their floor he could smell whatever Jean was making. He opened the door and heard voices, there were only two options for that. A Jean had someone over, which he doubted. It's not that Jean didn’t have friends aside from him. He got along great with Connie and Sasha and also with Marco’s cousin and her girlfriend. But he was just socially awkward and had a hard time fitting in.

So option B was the more reasonable of the two, Jean was livestreaming. Perfect, he could tease him and not die because of it. Marco shut the door and took of his shoes, “Honey I'm home!” he yelled from the doorway.

  
“Oh my god Marco! I told you to stop it this morning.” Marco could hear Jean defending himself to his followers, he wondered if his computer managed to connect to the wifi in time to record that.

“What’s for lunch dear?” He asked as he walked into the kitchen and waved at Jean’s laptop. Jean was facing the stove busy cooking something.  
“You don’t get anything!”  
“Why are you being so rude? Guys I think he hates me” with that said tons of messages popped up stating otherwise.

  
Senpai_in-kitchen ‘Nahh, Marco he LOVES you waaaay too much.’  
NotaPotato ‘Yeah, Yeah! What senpai said! Trust us WE KNOW ;) ;)’  
Frostiequeen ‘u guys should just admit it and kiss.’  
Pinky-Queen ‘Just got here what did I miss? OMG are they finally dating or something?’

 

Marco just laughed, “Jean you should read some of these!” Jean had his back to Marco and the camera he was busy stirring a pot, with a towel draping over his left shoulder and that same arm resting on his hip.  
“Just tell me what they said Marco, as you can see am busy.”

  
“Ok one sec.” when Marco looked back at the screen even more messages showed up, FrostieQueen ‘Chill Marco u totally have the hots for him too, just tell him.’  
Pinky-Queen ‘OMG don’t tell him!! Do something instead!!’

Marco wasn’t sure what he should do but it would probably get Jean all flustered so he was down for it. “They said something along the lines of you being in love with me.”

Jean stiffened and the spatula he was holding clanked as it landed on the ground.

  
“WHAT!!?!?!” Marco turned around as he heard the spatula hit the floor, Jean was flustered all right and was having a hard time picking up the spatula.  
“Need a hand there?”  
“God damn it Marco am fine!” he said as he cleaned up his mess.  
“Language dear, we can’t have the children learning those words.”  
“Marco I swear to god you're asking to be smacked on the back of your head with this pan. And besides we don’t have children or pets.”  
Marco looked back at the pc “Guys he so grumpy, but this morning he was so sweet.”  
“Shut up Marco!”

  
Notapotato ‘OMG Marco just show him by doing something!!’  
Pinky-Queen ‘Thank you!! Potato you understand!’

  
“Oh, that sounds interesting. What do you want me to do?”

  
reindeer<3bean ‘Sha la la la my oh my, look like the boy to shy u wanna kiss the boy!’

Senpai_in-kitchen ‘KISS HIM!’  
Pinky-Queen ‘kiss kiss kiss kiss!’  
Notapotato ‘woah woah! Kiss the boy!’

FrostieQueen 'kiss, kiss fall in love'

  
“Hmm, I can do that.” There were a large chorus of 'Yay' and 'Finally' from the viewers. Marco walked up towards Jean grinning. Jean looked up when Marco stood beside him and leaned his hip onto the stove

  
“What?” Jean whined  
“Oh nothing I just wanted to know what you're making. And shouldn’t you be showing this on the livestream?”

Jean turned to fully face Marco then, “Nope I showed them how to make a dessert already, well we are just waiting for it to come out of the oven so, yeah. Besides they wanted to know what I was going to make for lunch and you know you have to give the audience what they want.”

  
With that Jean turned back to face the stove, he gave the stir fry he had on the wok a quick stir to make sure it wasn’t sticking.  
“Hmm, I like that. Maybe I should too.” Jean’s cocked an eyebrow, crossed his arms and turned to face Marco again, spatula still in hand.

  
“Oh really? And what would they like you to do?” he asked, Marco leaned in a bit closer. Jean had gotten used to having little to no personal space since he met Marco, so he didn’t lean back as Marco kept moving closer.

“Sigh. For Pete’s sake just tell me would ya Marco. What did you guys tell him to do?” Jean turned to glare at the pc as Marco’s hands cupped his face to turn Jean’s attention back to him.

  
“Jean’s your cheeks are just so squishy.” Jean rolled his eyes as he put the spatula down and brought his hands up to hold onto Marco’s writs. Marco was way to focused on squishing his cheeks making Jean’s mouth form pouty duck lips.

  
“Sigh, Marco wat ar you doing? I’m sure tey didn’t ask you to come ove hear too squish my face.”

“Your right, they asked me to kiss it.”  
“WHAAAT??” Jean’s arms were flailing and his face was as bright as a cherry tomato. However, Jean’s eyes were solely focused on Marco’s lips as Marco closed the gap between them.

“MAR…” Jean started but they were both interrupted by smoke coming from the stir fry.

Jean moved away from Marco “Shit!” he said as he turned on the exhaust hood above their stove. “Fuck, Marco open the door to the balcony we need to get this out before the fire alarm goes off.” Marco did as he was told as Jean grabbed the wok and followed him. The oven’s timer went off precisely as Jean was standing on the balcony. “Crap, Marco can you pull that out and make sure I turned off the stove would you.”  
“On it.”

  
After the smoke died down, Jean came back in and placed the wok on the hot pads he had placed out a while ago.  
“Crap I guess we can’t have this for lunch, I’ll try and see what we can salvage for dinner but, argh I don’t know.” He then turned to face Marco, Jean grabbed the oven mitt and started hitting the other with it. “This is all your fucking fault you know.”

  
“Jeeeaaan. Stop. It's not that bad we can eat something else.” Marco said as he put up his hands in mock defence to Jean’s playful hits.  
“Oh like what?” Jean stopped his attack then, Marco took this opportunity to wrap Jean in a hug, “Like pizza.” Jean pulled away a little at that but Marco kept his hold.  
“What kind of pizza are we talking about here?”

Oh ho ho, Marco new he was getting junk food for lunch now, Jean was hooked if he was asking for the type. Marco relaxed his hold and was more or less just holding onto Jean’s upper arms by now.

  
“You know the type you like.” Jean’s eyes sparkled then  
“Taco pizza whole grain thin crust?”  
“Yup” Marco responded with a nod as he released one of Jean’s arm to reach for his phone from his back pocket and pulled it towards his ear.

  
“You have them on speed dial?” Jean said slightly annoyed as he crossed his arm.  
“Yup, someone has to make sure food is delivered for Dr. Hange in the lab every once in a while.” That made Jean relax and he brought his arms around Marco’s waist and he rested head on the other’s shoulder.

Marco rubbed Jean’s back as he ordered their pizza, they had completely forgotten about the livestream. “Ok they said they would have it ready in half an hour, kay?” Jean grunted onto the other's shoulder, he seemed to be in low spirits and Marco would need to fix that soon. “Come on at least dessert turned out ok. And we can totally watch one of your shows on Netflix if you want. Or would you rather watch Frozen, How to Train your Dragon, Treasure Planet or Tarzan again?” Jean finally lifted his head up and looked at Marco.

  
“Tarzan.”  
“There we go, now go set it up on your pc and we can hook it up to the tv.” Jean nodded and went to the counter where his pc was.

When he got there he noticed that they never turned the stream off and on the side there were just a bunch of comments mentioning how cute they were.  
“Fuck!” Marco came over to see what was wrong, he draped over Jean only to see what the other was concerned about. “We left it on.”

  
“Ooops.”  
“I guess I should turn it off.”  
“Wait a sec that reminds me.” Jean ignored Marco in preference for saying bye to his followers as Marco grabbed his chin and gave him a kiss on the cheek.  
“What was that for?”

  
“I was giving the audience what they wanted.” Marco said as innocently as he could.  
“Whatever.”

However, the comments kept coming in, half were people cheering the other half kept saying things along the lines of ‘a real kiss’ or ‘on the lips’.

Marco preferred to ignore the messages, instead opted to waved goodbye and logged them off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously sometimes Latinos have no sense of personal space, I can say this as one of them. Its terrible so I made sure Marco and Jean acted more like me and my siblings. I wasn't 100% sure what to do with ermin to be honest, i feel they needed more love but I didn't know what to do, hence JM got a longer part in this chapter.  
> Like always feel free to message me here or my tumbler chibichan449


	9. Getting Ready

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day of the Gala has finally arrived. Levi, Erwin and Hange finally get to meet all the interns. Hange is super excited and can't wait to start experimenting.

“Finally, the day has arrived! EEEY I’m so excited, I can’t wait!” Hange jumped up and down in excitement.  
“Shitty four eyes, relax, it's not the first time you are hosting this shenanigan.” Levi grumbled.

  
“It's ok Levi, I think she is just excited to have the interns in.” Nanaba said as she did some final touches her uniform. “Your husband here is also exploding with energy. His is just better contained,” she added. Levi gave a small smile at that, he knew that Erwin was looking forward to this all week.

  
“So why are you so excited brother? I mean I know Hange is looking for subjects for her experiments.” She said as she looked fondly at their friend, who was currently harassing Nanaba’s staff about joining her experiment. She felt bad for her crew yet at the same time extremely proud of her staff for the skilled way they were handling Hange’s exhilaration.

“So do tell what’s your reason?” She looked at him while she smacked him playfully on the chest.  
“Opfh. You still can pack a punch little sis,” he exclaimed and Nanaba just smiled as he began to explain, “well, someone had to write a disclaimer form for Hange so we don’t have any legal consequences down the road. And besides in the disclaimer it allows for personality analysis, relationship analysis and parenting style analysis.”

  
“So in other words you are allowed to stalk them the moment they get Hange’s experiment thing.”  
“No Levi, technically I can analyze their personality, relationship and living habits. Once we know the embryo has been conceived and is growing successfully I get to analyze prior to the arrival of the baby, and then how they change with the baby’s arrival, as well as their parenting style.”

  
“Wouldn’t that affect their parent-child-relationship if they are unavailable to bond with the fetus. I mean you will just pretty much drop the baby on their door step,” his sister pointed out.  
“Actually that is not 100% correct Nanaba. Yes, they don’t get to bond with their offspring, However we will provide some parenting courses to prep them for what they will need to expect.”

  
“You say this bushy brows, as if you expect this to work.”  
“Well…”  
“Ah! Excuse me you two. I need to save my staff now.”

Nanaba interrupted as she left to rescue her fierce and brave squad. Molbit had just arrived and quickly jumped into the fire to distract Hange.

  
“So do you expect it to work Erwin?”, Levi said as he leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes glancing over at the shit show that was happening.  
“Well, I don’t know. I mean it would be nice to have kids of our own. I would like to see what they would look like; I would hope that they have your eyes.” Levi turned to look at Erwin, who was looking at him with a warm, gentle smile.

  
“Hmph.” Levi quickly turned back to looking at Hange “Well I just hope they don’t get your stupid brows.” Erwin knew his partner was getting embarrassed so he let the conversation drop, even if he did like seeing Levi all flustered.

  
“Do you wanna see if Mike needs any help in the back or would you rather handle that?” Erwin said as he pointed towards Hange, who was still trying to convince the poor staff of how amazing her experiment could be.  
“I’ll take Hange for now, shit will hit the fan later and then it's going to be all yours for the taking.”  
“Very well.” With that Erwin pecked Levi on the lips and left towards the back corner of the room, where the bar is located.

 

“Ouch, Levi~”  
“Stop harassing the staff four eyes, you will have plenty of other victims soon.”  
“But you didn’t have to hit me so hard on the head,” Hange said with a pout as she rubbed the top of her head.

Meanwhile Nanaba and Mobilt took the opportunity to evacuate the staff while she was distracted. “It’s unfair Levi, I totally thought that the baldy would be a perfect match with cat face girl.”

  
“Sigh… you are not a fucking match maker so butt out of that, plus they are perfectly capable of making their own kid if they wanted. Without your help may I add. But I think the serious looking one doing the final touches by the tables wouldn’t like it.”  
“Oh ho ho ho what do you mean? I never noticed, let me see. Omg you are so right he’s going over to talk to her right now. Oh my god, Levi, look.” Levi grabbed Hange by the arm and dragged her away

  
“For fucks sake Hange be a little more discreet, I seriously don’t know how you are going to pull this off.” Levi dragged her towards the front door where the sign in sheet and forms that Erwin created were set out. As they walked there Hange released herself from Levi’s grip as she spun around in her dress. This year she decided to go with a teal dress that flowed nicely at the bottom allowing her to twirl but at the same time it looked mature and formal. It somehow matched her personality perfectly. As she finished spinning she grinned and looked Levi dead in the eye.

  
“Don’t worry Levi, I am sure it will work out because I have you and Erwin as my backup. Plus Molbit is here and I know you guys use him to keep me in check, and you know despite my irrational moments from time to time,” Levi couldn’t help but huf and roll his eyes at that, “I know how to act mature and compose. I can guarantee you and Erwin wouldn’t have stayed by my side had I not been able to rail it all in.”

  
With that Hange went to organize the papers, adding pens where they needed to go and setting up the clip boards. Levi just stared at her for a bit, reminiscing about how he meet Hange and all the trouble it came with. Way too many inconveniences to count, some that clearly Levi enjoyed as it caused a small laugh to escape his lips. Which caught Hange’s attention, as she turned around to look at him he was composed once again and covering the small laugh with a cough.

  
“You ok Levi? Do you want me to get you some water or something?” she started approaching him with concern in her eyes. She went to pat his back but Levi swatted her hand away.  
“Stop it Hange we need to finish cleaning and sorting up this mess you have, your test subjects- I mean our patrons will be here soon.” Levi moved past her and began reorganizing things, Hange smiled at him and quickly went over to ‘help’ him organize.

  
“I can’t wait for you guys to meet my intern, and I can’t wait to meet Erwin’s and yours too of course.”

 

Erwin was leaning by the bar sipping his drink as Mike was wiping down some glasses, they watched Levi and Hange squabbling while organizing the form table.  
“Levi seems to be in a good mood today.” Erwin sighed and grinned  
“Yeah, I think deep down he wants tonight to be successful and to make Hange happy.”

Mike put the glasses to the side and leaned onto the bar to get closer to his brother in law. “There are very few times I see Levi as relaxed as he is right now with Hange. There are even fewer people in general aside from you two, and sometimes even Banana and myself, that he looks comfortable being around. He always seems so guarded but with you two he can be himself.” Erwin had to laugh at that as he turned to face Mike and put his glass down.

  
“Oh Mike, I don’t know about you but I think Hange can break down anyone’s barriers.”  
Mike smiled, “Yes but so can you, however you are not as straightforward as she is.”  
“True, but if it weren’t for her I don’t know if Levi and I would be together today. After all, when he and I first meet it wasn’t ideal. Yet if it wasn’t for Hange and her ways, Levi would never have accepted any of my advances.” Erwin’s eyes had glossed over clearly remembering some fond times as he smiled a bit.

  
“Yes, but as I recall she can also become a bit of an inconvenience at times.” Erwin’s expression quickly shifted from fondness to embarrassment as his hand came to cover is face.  
“Oh god don’t remind me, please. So many awkward situations.” He dragged his hand down his face and looked at Mike. “Lets just say Levi and I are no longer surprised by anything any more, even when we wake up and find her in our bed it's just normal now.”

  
“Wait what? She ends up in your bed?”  
“Yeah… it’s a habit she developed during our university days. We still don’t know how she manages to get into the house, much less how she gets into our room and bed without either of us noticing a thing.”  
“Now that’s skills.”  
“Mhm”Erwin hummed in a greement.

  
Hange made her way towards them, with Levi close behind her. “So is everything arranged to your standards?”, asked Erwin.  
“Ngh.” Levi grunted as he got closer to the bar, Mike was already preparing his drink which he took with a thankful nod.  
“How about you, you ready Hange?” Hange wrapped her arms around Erwin, placing her chin on his chest.  
“To be perfectly honest, I am a nervous wreck at the moment.” Both Mike and Erwin laughed, as Levi rolled his eyes and sipped his drink.

 

Two by two the guests arrived, and slowly the room began getting louder as more people arrived and started up conversations. Erwin, Levi and Hange mainly stayed in the back, the welcomed some the patrons and had small conversations but mainly they were just waiting for their interns to arrive. 

  
“Their late!”  
“Levi! Come on, behave you don’t know what could be holding them up. They could be stuck in traffic.” Erwin tried to smooth things out, Levi expected people to always get there 5 minutes before or two minutes after the designated time.

  
“I don’t know what to expect from your- Ah, good. See mine showed up. Good or else I would have made them clean Hange’s lab for their tardiness.”  
“Levi that’s rude, it’s not that bad.”

Levi just shot her a look, he had had to clean her lab more than once and he clearly wasn’t a fan. “Ok maybe it is, but any who. Which ones yours?” Hange said looking around from behind Levi with her hands on his shoulders.  
“Both of them are mine over there, that petite blonde is Annie and then there is her equally as deadly partner, Mikasa.”

  
“Oooooh they are so cute! They would make some exotically adorable babies.”  
“Did you miss the key word deadly?”  
“Oh who cares about that, just think of how precious their babies would be!”

  
“Levi why don’t you go get them and introduce them to us.” Erwin encouraged.  
“Sure thing, meanwhile, tame that one.”

Levi weaved through the crowds with ease and reached the girls as they handed their signed forms to one of Nanaba’s workers. “Mikasa, Annie.” He greeted them as they turned around, both of them nodding their greeting.

  
Mikasa wore a little black dress that fitted her figure, not that she couldn’t wear anything and not look great in it. However, it showed of her toned arms and legs in the most stunning way, her red shawl around her shoulders stood out. Levi couldn’t help but smile, she always had a red accessory with her, mainly scarfs though.

Annie also wore a black dress, while Mikasa’s was strapless and opened in the back, Annie’s was covered in lace. It was lovely, the lace started around her neck and her chest and clung to her figure. There was a darker fabric that made it opaque starting at her bust. She looked elegant, regal even.

Levi just nodded towards the direction from which he came, and they followed after him. Levi loved his girls, they worked better than any team he had ever had. Sadly, even better than Farlan and Isabel, they still worked for him though but since they started their family they no longer did the riskier gigs.

Levi reached his family with the girls in tow.  
“Hange, Erwin I want you to meet my best workers. Naturals to be honest.” Erwin was the first to introduce himself and shake their hands as Hange was looking at them with way too much excitement.

“Hi I am Hange, it's my privilege to finally meet you,” she said as she hugged both the girls. As she held them in a bone crushing hug she whispered into their ears “Thanks for watching out for him, and I know he is a little rough around the edges but he loves you both dearly.” Then she let go and began embarrassing Levi by talking about how adorable his girls were and how proud he is of them.

Erwin talked to them a bit more before he told them to enjoy the party and to feel free to mingle around.  
Not soon after that Erwin spotted his favorite little blond. “Well it looks like my intern is here, and look at that he took my advice.”  
“Oh my god, don’t tell me! Eeeeh he brought his love interest eh!”, Hange kept glancing from Erwin to the two newcomers.

  
“It looks like he did.”  
“I don’t see what’s so fascinating about those two.”  
“Oh Levi, looks can be deceiving, and besides, my love. You of all people should know not to judge people based on their physique. After all no one would guess that Petra could fight like that.”

  
“Point taken, but your boy definitely doesn’t look like a fighter.”  
“Nope, he’s definitely more like me and Erwin, the brainy type.” Hange butted in again as she pointed to her head. “Erwin please go get them, they look so lost and I want to meet Armin so badly.” Hange was now facing him, giving him her best puppy eyes as she draped herself on him.

  
Erwin laughed and patted her head, “Ok stay put and I will bring them over.” Hange quickly pulled apart and gave a woof. Levi smacked her butt, he couldn’t believe she did that. Erwin left and went to greet Armin and Eren, with some luck these two would catch Hange’s eye and they would be his, well, their new experiment.

  
Levi loved his girls, Erwin could say the same for his little intern. He watched Armin guide Eren through the crowd, he could tell at times Eren was doing things on purpose to get Armin’s attention. They both wore crisp saw lap tuxedos, Armin’s had a blueish tint to it that brought out the colour in his eyes while Eren’s was black with a teal tie that matched perfectly with his stunning eye colour.

Armin turned around as Erwin came into view, the little blond’s eyes sparkled as he saw his professor. It made Eren a little jealous to see how Armin lighted up, he knew Erwin was married but he just couldn’t help himself as he boiled a little on the inside. Armin should only look at him like that, but he guessed that Armin was just grateful to be able to attend this event, so he let it slide.

  
“Dr. Smith.” Armin waved.  
“Please, call me Erwin.”  
“Yes, Erwin. Thank you so much for inviting me and Eren to such a lovely event.”  
“Relax Armin, the party hasn’t even started. I want you two to relax and enjoy yourselves, greet as many of the guest that are here. They are all very influential people, but first I have some people that are dying to meet you.”

He guided Eren and Armin to the back, surprisingly though Eren was rather quiet the whole time.  
“Oh my goodness! I have heard so much about you Mr. Alert,” Hange said as she bounced up from her spot and towards Armin, grabbing his hand with both of hers. Armin was a bit shocked at this.

  
“And who’s your handsome partner here, hmm?” That brought Eren out of his silence.  
“Hello, a pleasure to meet you. I am Eren Jaeger. Dr Smith, thank you for letting me take part in this event.”  
“Eren, my boy, no need to be so formal,” Hange slapped him on the back, “Oh, look at that! My boy is here and it seems like he took my advice too.” Hange smiled and disappeared from their small group.

  
“Forgive Hange, she’s not normal,” Levi’s comment forced Armin to try and stifle a smile.  
“What Levi means to say; don’t mind her, she is a genius but a bit of a scatterbrain.”

  
“She seems to be an interesting case Dr- I mean Erwin, have you considered asking her to be apart of our studies?”  
“Haha, oh Armin. I have tried analyzing her many times and to be honest I don’t even understand what goes on in her head. But anyways, please enjoy yourselves and if you need anything don’t hesitate to ask.”

  
“Thank you very much,” Armin said as he hooked his arm with Eren’s and pulled him along.  
“I can see why you like the kid, but I seriously don’t get it Erwin. Why would you want your best pupil with that troublemaker?”  
“Come on Levi, Eren’s not terrible. He follows instructions well but he’s a free spirit, always wanting to go out and explore. Honestly that’s one of the reasons Armin is so drawn to him, you know, the need to always know more and try new things.”

  
Hange managed to swerve her way through the crowd at the speed of light, and before either one of the boys had crossed the threshold she pounced on them.  
“Ghaa!” Jean exclaimed, Marco jumped a bit but was no longer fazed by her greetings.

  
“Ma Boys!” she exclaimed as she hugged them and patted their heads, “I am so glad you made it. Erwin and Levi showed off their peoples but you two were nowhere to be found.” Hange had let go of them and crossed her arms over her chest. “I totally wanted to show off. Marco, love, I was expecting you to be here early, you are always on time.”

  
Marco scratched the back of his head and his face was a bit flushed in embarrassment, “Sorry Dr. Zoe, someone had some issues with his tux.”  
“Call me Hange, Marco, and Jean I don’t understand? The both of you look like models, like you were practically born to wear these clothes. The notch lapel is so you Marco and Jean the peak lapel is so dashing on you. I knew both of you would make me proud.” Both boys blushed a bit. “Now come, come my people await your arrival.” With that she grabbed their hands and pulled them towards Levi and Erwin.

  
“Ah so we finally meet Hange’s favorite lab rat.”  
“Levi be nice, please. Marco is helping develop, create, and maintain my NEW project.” Hange emphasized her words and nodded her head towards Marco and Jean in order for Levi to shut up. Levi smiled, so she really wants these two to be part of the experiment eh?

  
“So I’m guessing the freckled one is your favorite?”  
“Levi, I can’t pick favorites amongst my lab children, you know that. But yes, Marco is my favorite just don’t tell Molbit.”  
“That’s cause Marco brings you pizza every once in awhile, and Molbit chooses healthier options.”

  
Erwin couldn’t help but laugh at his two favorite people picking stupid fights with each other. “Marco, thank you for taking care of her for us and Molbit, we all truly appreciate it. I am Erwin and the man disputing with your boss is my partner Levi. It truly is a pleasure to meet you. Its unfortunate that you boys and the other interns didn’t all arrive at the same time or else it would have been wonderful for all of you to meet.”

  
“I am sure that we will eventually meet them, no offence but I was expecting this to be a lot bigger than this.”  
“Haha, Marco right? You're quite bright. We hold it for the ones that are at the top of the ladder in the organization, I guess you could say.”  
“I see, well me and Jean are both thankful to be invited.”

“Please enjoy yourselves and don’t worry I will make sure your boss comes back in one piece.”

As the three of them turn around to look at the bickering duo, Erwin just shrugged and waved them off with a slick smile.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really want to thank Lady Hades for editing this chapter.  
> I don't know about you guys but I can't wait until Eren and Jean run into each other. After all its not that big of a place, I'm sure they are going to run into one another soon. Maybe literally or maybe not, hmmm maybe a part 2 to the elevator scene lol.  
> Feel free to comment or contact me on my tumblr chibichan449


	10. A Night to Remember

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jean talks to girls...kinda. Armin and Marco have to stop a fight from breaking out and open bar for all!

“Well that was awkward to say the least,” Jean said as he and Marco left the odd group of adults, he looked back briefly at the odd trio.  
“Yes, but you could have helped out. You totally left me to do all the talking,” Marco pouted as he looped his arm with Jean’s and pinched his side with his other hand.  
“Oi, stop that. But any who here I thought Dr. Zoe was crazy, their whole little group seems weird. I don’t know, just a hunch.”

 

“You always assume the worst of humanity.”  
“Someone has too, you see the best in people all the time. This is why you get hurt.”

 

Marco walked him towards the bar, he could tell that Jean was still a little on edge. ‘Thank you, Mr. Mrs.Kirschtein for making your son fear formal events’, he thought.  
“Well aren’t I lucky to have you to protect me from all the bad things out there,” Marco said dramatically.  
“Hell yeah! You know it,” Jean said proudly hitting his chest and smiling. Marco was happy to see Jean was finally giving him a genuine smile.

 

“So what can I get you?”, said Mike as Jean and Marco reached the bar.  
“Can I get a long island ice tea,” said Jean.  
“I’ll just get some amaretto with cranberry juice, please,” added Marco.  
“Sure thing.”

 

Mike began to make their drinks but he was disrupted by a snapchat from Hange, which he quickly checked. It was an image of the back of the two men currently waiting for their drinks, ‘What do u think??? I think they should be part of experiment?? I shall await ur thoughts’. Mike smiled, he looked at the two who were currently engrossed in their own conversation.

 

“Jean are you sure you should start with such a strong drink?”  
“Listen Marco, you know I don’t like going to these things. God knows I have gone to more than enough of these to last me a lifetime. The only reason I ever tolerate them is because you are there to make it less painful. And since I became legal I have you and alcohol to make this better.”  
“But Jean you have to promise me you won’t make a fool of yourself, okay. Don’t drink too much, okay? Promise me?”  
“Yeah, yeah I promise.” Jean waved him off and turned around to look at the crowd as he rested his elbows on the bar, “sigh, more people seem to be arriving. Looks like it’s going to get crowded pretty soon.”

 

“Don’t be so melodramatic Jean,” Marco said as he bumped his arm, “you know the rich and powerful need as much space as they can get to strut their grandeur, so it can’t get much worse than it is right now.”  
“Yeah, I know. Doesn’t mean I like it.”  
“But I’m here,” Marco said, resting his head on Jean’s shoulder.  
“That’s true, and that’s all I really need,” Jean responded, as he laid his head on Marco’s.

 

Mike quickly snapped Hange back a picture of the two, ‘I thought they were already married.’, and with that he handed them their drinks.

 

Jean and Marco took their drinks and thanked the bartender and decided to walk around the room.  
Jean sipped his drink, “Fuck! Marco this shits good. Wanna try?”  
“Eh, I think one of us should stay sober.”  
“Dude, one sip is not going to kill you,” Jean said as he rolled his eyes, “and besides we’re going to get some grub, right. So~.” Jean forcefully switched their drinks, taking a sip of Marcos’.  
“Not bad, even if you got some weak ass drink. Tastes really good actually, we should make it at home next time.”

 

Marco nodded, “It’s one of my favorites.”  
“No way? I didn’t know that. And here I thought I knew everything aboutcha.”  
Marco giggled and shook his head.  
“Guess there is still lots I need to learn aboutcha, eh.” Jean cocked an eyebrow as he looked over at Marco.

 

Marco had to admit he looked dashing like that, especially in that tux. He kinda wanted to just ditch the event and help Jean out of it to make him more comfortable. He settled for just switching back the drinks and staying close to Jean, ‘One day’ he thought, ‘One day I’ll tell him. Maybe’.  
“Ok then, since we are such strangers we should get to know each other better.” Marco teased.  
“Alrighty. Will this be a conversation we can have over a meal cause I’m starving,” Jean growled the last part.  
“Whatever makes ya happy, love.”

 

As they wandered, looking for the waiters with their silver platters of hors d'oeuvre. Jean stopped in his tracks. "Woah!”   
“What?” Marco stopped and looked in the general direction Jean was staring at, he noticed there were two gorgeous women in little black dresses. He turned to look at his friend’s face, Jean was actually blushing, not intensely but just enough for it to be noticeable.

 

“That chicks kinda hot, don’t ya think?”  
“Which one? I mean there are thousands of women here but I am going to take a wild guess and say it has to be one of the two in the black dresses.”  
“Yeah! The one with the red shawl.”  
“She is pretty,” Marco contemplated.  
“Holy fuck Marco, she is not just pretty. She’s fucking awesome. The blonde one is too but, I mean.”

 

Jean gestured towards the one with the red accessory causing Marco to frown. Things were going so well with Jean, how could he have forgotten that he was straight.  
Marco sighed, “Ok, if you say so.”

 

“Marco~ how can you not see it? Like, look at her. I need to go talk to her, come on.” Jean took Marco’s hand and pulled him through the crowd to the other side.  
“I mean it’s amazing! I need to know what she is doing.”  
“Jean that’s borderline creepy.”  
“Well I gotta know how she managed such perfect body fat to muscle ratio. I have way too many clients who want to look exactly like that.”

 

Marco halted which caused Jean to stop in his tracks. “Wait what?”  
“Move it Marco we are almost there, before she leaves,” Jean whined.  
“Jean think about it for just a second. How creepy will you sound if you go up to her and tell her she has great fat to muscle ratio. You realize she will probably punch you right in face and definitely think you’re crazy. You’re not going to get her number like that.”

 

Jean huffed, crossing his arms over his chest in a defensive pose while pouting. “I know okay, and besides I don’t really want her number, I want her trainer’s if she has one,” he said with a faint blush, this made Marco visibly relax a bit, he rolled his eyes and gave a small smile. Of course, that’s what Jean wanted to talk to her about, ever since he took some biomechanics courses he has been analyzing people’s bodies.

 

“Ok then, I’ll try to help you seem less freakishly weird.”  
Jean smiled at him, “Sweet, then what are we waiting for!”

 

As they approached Jean’s mystery girl, Jean decided to get their attention, “Um, excuse me?”  
She and her partner turned in their direction and graced them with dazzling smiles. Jean was amazed, they were gorgeous, and he was shocked they even acknowledged him. He and Marco got closer and it seemed that both girls were walking towards them as well. However, the girls walked right past them.

 

Jean turned around and got their attention again, “Excuse me Miss?”  
Both girls turned their gaze towards Jean and Marco. Their gaze was no longer as friendly and elegant as it had been, it now felt extremely intimidating.

 

“Yes?” said the one with dark hair.  
“I was, um, wondering if, you - ” Jean was interrupted by another voice.  
“Mikasa! Hey, I didn’t - ”

 

Jean’s eyes were wide open, he couldn’t believe it. Eren fucking Jaeger was here as well and the gorgeous girls were gracing him with their smiles. Likewise Eren stared back with the same shocked expression as his rival.

 

“What the fuck are you doing here horseface!?”  
“I could ask you the same thing Jaeger!,” Jean snarled.

 

Marco realized this was going south really fast, and this time he didn’t have Armin as back up. “Why the hell are you talking to my sister? Get away from Mikasa and Annie.” Eren stepped between the girls and Jean.

 

“Eren!” Armin appeared, huffing and puffing. He was currently trying to catch his breath after chasing him across the room. He was bent over with his hands on his knees. “Eren.. phew… seriously they weren’t going anywhere… you didn’t have to sprint over here…god, I’m out of shape,” Armin said as he finally looked up. As he did he realized the situation he had just walked into; Mikasa and Annie, were completely unfazed as expected, Jean and Eren were staring at each other intensely the tension rising, and finally, Marco. The only one paying attention to him at the moment. There was a pleading look on his face, Armin wondered how much he had miss in the time spent catching up to Eren.

 

Armin’s thoughts were disrupted as Annie approached him with a warm smile, “Are you okay ?,” she said as she helped him straighten up.  
“Yes, thank you.”

 

Marco tugged at Jean’s sleeve, making him break eye contact with Eren as he unconsciously stepped in front of Marco protectively. Eren scrunched up his nose at Jean and turned to attend to Armin.

 

“Sorry, I just got excited about the girls being here.”  
“I noticed,” Armin retorted. As Eren got closer, Armin took the opportunity to intertwine his right hand with Eren’s left hand, while Armin’s other hand gripped Eren’s elbow to hold him back. This would keep Eren close to him and prevent him from doing something crazy like he usually would. At the same time, he gave Marco a meaningful look. He looked at Marco then at Jean, then he looked at his hold on Eren and then back at Marco. Marco picked up on it right away and held on to Jean in the same matter.

 

“Eren,” Mikasa started, “who is this?” She gestured towards Jean and Marco.  
“Tch, horseface, I mean Jean, he was one of my coworkers and the nice one is Marco the unfortunate soul that lives with him.”

 

Jean scrunched his face at Eren who just stuck his tongue out in retaliation. Jean attempted to take a step forward, however Marco held him back as Armin did the same thing with Eren.  
Annie stepped in this time, “Well in that case, it was an interesting encounter and what did you need from us Jean?”

 

Jean looked at Annie, her cold and calculating gaze honed on him made him forget his reason for being there.

 

“I… uh…” he stammered, Marco sighed and covered for him.  
“He wanted to know if you had a trainer because you guys have great figures and the right proportions of muscle to fat ratio. As in you look fit but don’t look bulky, and it is something his clients are always asking him about.”

 

Mikasa and Annie looked at each other and then back at Jean who seemed intensely interested in looking at the ground.  
“Well we actually… we don’t really have a trainer,” Annie started as she looked over to Mikasa.  
“If we need professional consultation, we generally get it from our boss or from Eren,” Mikasa finished.

Jean looked up to glare at Eren who just gave a smug smile back. Armin nudged Eren in the rib with his elbow and whispered “Eren, come on behave.”

 

“However, Annie does get fantastic healthy and delicious recipes from someone online and that helps us maintain our figure I guess. Isn’t that right sweetheart?”  
Annie eyed Jean, then looked between Marco and Jean and then back at Jean again. Jean felt awkward, yet he saw a faint smile form on Annie's face as she nodded her response to Mikasa.

 

“That’s right. He’s really good.”  
Eren’s eyes lit up “Ooh? Really?” he dragged out his words, “I bet their recipes can’t beat the smoothie we have in the morning,” he said as he pointed between himself and Armin.  
Their conversation was quickly interrupted by a pair of tanned arms that draped over Marco and Jean.

 

“Look at what we got here!”  
Marco recognized that voice right away, “No way?”, he exclaimed as he slowly let go of Jean’s arm to turn around.

 

“I told you didn’t I. I’d recognize that butt anywhere.”  
Marco turned around and hugged his cousin as he said her name, “YMIR!” She hugged him back with a laugh, “Sup Bodt.” Krista giggled as she showed up on Jean’s other side. Jean smiled down at the little blonde, she gave him a big smile and pulled him into a hug.

 

“Hey there, gorgeous, what brings you to this lame-o party, hmm?”, Jean said with sass.  
“Hello to you too, Jeanbo,” she pulled away from him to look him up and down and then started circling him like a vulture. Jean just watched her as she looked him up and down, nodding in approval.

 

“I knew it! I told Marco that style of tux would totally suit you. Am I good or what?”  
“You were right Krista, I never doubted you for a minute,” Marco said, smiling with one arm lounging on Ymir’s shoulder and the other resting on his hip. Ymir had her arm draped over Marco’s shoulder in a similar manner.  
“But next time come to her instead of spending your money on this”, Ymir tugged on the sleeve of Marco’s tux, “this look like shit in comparison to what my angel can make.”

 

“Wait! What the fuck? Horseface, you actually talk to women outside of work?”  
The little group turned around to look at Eren whose face was all scrunched up in disbelief. Marco quickly stepped up before Ymir and Jean pounced on Eren.

 

“Uh, this is Ymir my cousin and the blonde cutie over there is Krista her girlfriend.”  
“I knew there was no way Jean was acquainted with pretty girls!”  
“EREN!”, Mikasa and Armin said in unison.

 

“Hi it’s nice to meet you, Ymir and Krista,” Armin said as he shook their hands, “I am Armin Arlert, and these are my friends; Mikasa, Annie and Eren, sorry about him.”  
“That’s okay,” Krista said with a smile, “I also have a troublemaker for a girlfriend so Marco and I can sympathize.”

 

“Hey!” said Eren, Ymir and Jean at the same time, while everybody else smiled at the comment.  
“You really can’t take them anywhere,” Krista giggled.  
“Gosh, yes I know what you mean. You never know when they will cause trouble,” Armin sympathized.  
“Couldn’t have said it better myself. I swear I always have a first aid kit on me just in case.”  
“Same here and I would hate to admit how many times I have had to actually use it.”  
“Ugh tell me about it.”

 

Armin and Krista were smiling at one another as they talked. Eren crossed his arms and pouted. “Hey, Ar. I am right here and I can hear you.”  
“Ah yes and like an excellent friend I am talking in front of you instead of behind your back.”

 

“Bahahahah!” Ymir lost it at that, “dear god Bodt, where did you find these people. Can we keep him? He needs to join our little family I think he will fit in perfectly. Plus,” she stepped away from Marco and stood between both of the little blondes as she put one hand on each of their shoulders, “they are practically twins.”  
Marco had tried not to laugh but a small, soft snicker escaped anyways. “I admit they do look a lot alike but, Ymir, you can’t just adopt people like that.”

 

Ymir let go of Armin and stood behind Krista as she entwined both arms over her shoulders and rested her head on top of Krista’s. Krista just placed her hands onto Ymir’s arms.  
“Why not? We adopted the two nut cases and your horse.”  
“Hey!”, Jean spat back at Ymir, who just winked at him. After all Jean knew that Ymir didn’t mean it in a mean way.

 

“Yes, but in a way you had approval from them,” Marco pointed out.  
“Well if that’s all I need,” Ymir said as she turned to face Armin, dragging Krista along with her. “So what do you think kid? Want to join our family?”

 

Armin looked confused, while Annie and Eren had started approaching Ymir with a look on their face that promised pain. Luckily Mikasa jumped in first stepping in front of Armin to get Ymir's attention, “I am sorry but Armin already has his own family, and that is us plus a few extra people - ”  
“However we could still be friends,” Armin interrupted from behind Mikasa.

 

Ymir looked at the little group and it made her smile, ‘yup they were ALL going to end up in the family one way or another’. “Sure. Hey babe, get their numbers while I go get us a drink. Come on Jeanbo you’re coming with me”  
“Wait, what? Why?”  
“Tch, just come along kay. By the way, what do you four want?” They each named their drink of choice and Ymir nodded as she pulled Jean by the collar for a bit until he followed her willingly.

 

They approached the bar and were greeted by Mike, “Back already I see, and with a new partner might I add.” Ymir and Jean gave each other the most disgusting look ever.  
“No offence but you’re not my type.”  
“Likewise kiddo, I like tits not dick.”  
Mike laughed, “Well ok, and here I thought you had a thing for freckles. Guess I was wrong.”

 

Ymir smacked the bar counter as she bellowed out a heartfelt, deep cackle, “My dear good sir, he totally has a thing for freckles, but he prefers it if it's paired with a nice personality and a dick.”

 

Mike gave a small smirk while Jean just smacked Ymir on the arm.  
“Oi, you can’t hit a woman.”  
“Fuck off Ymir and how can you say all that! Gosh seriously, how are you two related!”, Jean said as he covered his face with his hands while grunting. By now Jean was as red as a stop sign, Ymir hit him on the back and Jean dropped his hands from his face to glare at her.  
“Cheer up buttercup, he doesn’t know. Plus I’m sure the three of us can keep yer secret.”  
Jean exhaled sharply through his nose.

 

“I’ll keep your secret I promise, now what can I get you two.”  
“Well for starts I think my buddy and I need two tequila shots each, then I need one Whoo Whoo, a Blue Hawaiian, a Mudslide, a Tequila Sunrise, a Between the Sheets, a Bloody Screwdriver, a El Nino and finally a Red Russian.” Ymir turned around to make sure she got the right number of drinks, as for the right type of drinks she could care less.

 

“I hope they’re not all for you two.”  
“Nope,” she said without looking at Mike. “We are on drink retrieval duty, oh and make two more of those shots. I have a feeling they will send someone else to help with the drinks shortly,” Ymir said as she turned back around.  
Mike nodded and got to work making their drinks.

 

“I didn’t hear Marco’s drink on that list?”, Jean questioned.  
“Psh, Jean my dear, he’s trying to be a responsible adult here and I need him to loosen up for my own entertainment, the one he asked for won’t do the job.”  
Jean looked her in the eye, “You can’t ruin this for him, he’s worked too hard to get here.”  
“Oh I know and don’t worry this will probably be the only strong drink he has tonight unless he sends me to get him a drink again.”  
“Okay, just don’t get him too drunk,” Jean said sternly.  
“And that’s your job, my brother.”  
“That reminds me, when did you receive my consent for joining this family thing?”  
“Hmm, well I think you need to put a ring on it if you really want to be a Bodt, but you gave your consent when you became his best friend and personal chef”  
Jean smiled at her and she grinned back at him, “fair enough.”

 

Soon after, some of their drinks were placed in front of them and Mike worked on the last few. Eren showed up alongside Ymir as the last drink was being placed before them.  
“I am here to help with the drinks, as I doubt horseface here can carry this many without face planting.”

 

Jean scowled at him but didn’t do anything else.  
“Perfect timing, I knew you would get voluntold to help. Though I’m surprised to see that all our angels were dumb enough to send their trouble makers to get alcohol together. Well cheers to a great night, long lasting friendships, and to getting some tonight,” she said as she took the tequila shots from Mike and handed two to Jean and Eren, leaving two for herself.

 

“Bottoms up boys!”, Ymir said as she tapped her shot glasses with both of the boys’, whom looked at each other in confusion as she chugged her first shot, with the boys following suit.

 

“Ahhhhh~. Just what the doctor ordered.”  
“Bleh it’s like pure rubbing alcohol!” Eren gagged

 

“You have no appreciation for the good stuff, Eren, right?”, Ymir jested and Eren nodded in response. She continued, “this is good tequila it doesn’t burn that badly and it’s cheap enough to do shots with. Uh, no offence.” She shoots Mike a look, he just waves Ymir off, unaffected. “But it’s the good stuff that goes down silky smooth, trust me we grew up drinking the good stuff. Plus if Mr. Pasty ass over here can do it, I’m sure you can too.”

 

“My ass isn’t pasty,” Jean shot back.  
“Well it sure as hell ain’t tanned like Erens’ and mine.” Jean nearly spit out his next shot and Eren laughed.  
“Ok, ok enough fascination with my ass, just take your damn shots before they think we are doing something suspicious over here,” Jean said as he looked over his shoulder towards their group. Marco seemed to be having a great time talking to the three girls and Armin.  
“If I was them, I would be suspicious already,” Ymir said as she grabbed some of the drinks, “Come on you two let's go.” The boys each grabbed a few drinks and followed her back to the group.

 

“Ymir, um, which ones Marco’s and mine?”, Jean paused before they got to their friends.  
Ymir turned around to face the boys, “Oh that’s right I modified some of the drinks. Eren switch with Jean, that red drink on your right with his orange one. The orange one is for your blond, Jean the red one is Marco’s, and yours is the other red one. The blue one on your left Eren, is the brunettes and the other orange one is yours. Trust me boys I got you covered.”  
“So I’m guessing the one with chocolate is Annie’s?”, Jean questioned.  
“Bingo Jeanbo, now come on before someone tries to hit on my precious Krista. I would hate to miss being there for when she turns them down. It’s always fun to hear their hearts break.”

 

“Your evil! I kinda dig it,” Eren said with a smile.  
“Eren, I swear you haven’t seen anything yet,” Jean said whole heartedly as he smiled at Eren, who reciprocated the smile.

 

“We’re back and we hope you’re all thirsty,” Ymir sang triumphantly.  
“What took you so long, Ymir?” Krista said worriedly as she took her drink from her.  
“There was a line up, right boys?”, she lied as she looked at the two who were handing out drinks.

 

“Yup, plus the bartender kept us talking for a while,” Jean also lied as he gave Annie her drink before returning to Marco’s side, handing him his drink as well.  
“This doesn’t look like the last one I got.”  
“Nah Marco, Jean will get you that on the next round. I chose yer drink this time around.”  
Marco eyed it suspiciously and leaned a smidge down to whisper into Jean’s ear, “Is it something I will regret?”

 

“It’s not that bad Freckles and besides, the next one I’ll get you will be your favorite drink or ‘rum and coke’,” Jean whispered back with quotation marks to emphasize his point. Marco gave him a saccharine smile, god Marco knew he loved him for a reason. ‘Rum and coke’ and ‘gin and tonic’ were the keywords they used when in public and didn’t want to get shit faced. Jean just winked back and took a sip of his drink.

 

“Let me try yours after kay, oh, I actually really like this one.” Jean exclaimed.  
At the same time Eren was quickly falling in love with whatever Ymir got him, “Wow this is good!” Armin and the girls hummed their agreement. Neither on of them really caring that it wasn't what they had ordered.

 

“Ya know people usually toast before they drink. Tch, so rude. Marco and Jean I thought I taught you better,” Ymir teased. Marco stuck out his tongue and gave a chided smile and Jean too another sip in defiance.  
“It’s okay, we can do one now,” Krista said smoothing things out.

 

“That’s my girl!”, Ymir said giving Krista a kiss on the forehead, “Alrighty then, to a night to remember and all the wonderful people I am surrounded by, may there be more like us. Cheers!” A chorus of cheers and glass clicking followed Ymir’s toast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to space things out to make it easier for reading, let me know if you guys like it. I tried to fix the first chapter too but it just wouldn't do it -_-; I tell you I'm tech challenged. 
> 
>  
> 
> A big thx to Lady Hades for editing, it was fun to do editing together. We should do it again (I'll bring stress snacks for you)
> 
> Feel free to message me @chibichan449.tumblr.com


	11. Get a Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hange manages to convince the boys to donate to her research

The little group continued to talk, enjoying each other’s company with hardly any arguments arising between Eren and Jean. Every once in awhile some of them would wonder around and socialize with some of the other people that were attending the event. At times, some of them were called over by their respective bosses and introduced to important individuals. Of course Ymir decided to be on drink duty as often as she could, dragging Jean and Eren with her whenever she could.

In the meantime the trio organizing the event were closely watching and analyzing all the candidates for their experiment. With occasional verbal input form Nanaba and snapchats from Mike. 

“Well Hange, I think you are sold on all our interns, but I have a question,” Levi stated.  
“Go on, I’m listening?”  
“Shitty glasses, how are you going to get samples from the girls?”   
“Well you… uh, oh. I see what you mean. That seems to put a kink in my plans,” Hange pondered as she brought her hand to rest on her chin and started thinking about the little situation that had presented itself. Erwin shot Levi a disapproving look, the other just shrugged it off and looked away while taking a sip of his drink. 

“Hange~” Erwin interrupted her thoughts.  
“Hmmm?”   
“Listen, why don’t you try it with the boys first. It’s easier to get the genetic material from them and depending on how things go we can try it with women after, ok,” Erwin said as he tried to reason with Hange.  
“I guess you're right Erwin. I was just so hung up on my intern and his love interest that I neglected to consider females and to bring equipment for extraction of ovum,” she considered as she visibly relaxed and smiled at him, Erwin smiled back and gave her a one armed hug. Physical contact always calmed her down.

“Of course he’s right, you know he tends to be right most of the time,” Levi cut in, finally acknowledging them, “but I think we need to work fast. Jean and Eren seem to be getting more than just tipsy. Remind me to hire that freckled chick next time I need to get people drunk real fast. She’s good.” 

“I’ll let Mike and Nanaba know to cut them off or at the very least slow them down, can’t have the genetic material being damaged by booze.” Hange exclaimed as she snapped Mike a silly selfie.

“You two have issues,” Levi scoffed as he ditched Erwin and Hange to grab some food. 

“What’s gotten into the shrimp? Whatever, I would say that Nanaba is just as good as Marco’s cousin at getting people drunk.” Hange defended her friend.  
“True, I mean look at us. Nanaba has brought drinks every single time she comes to talk to us. So maybe Levi hit his limit.”   
“Nah, Erwin you have not seen him hit his limit. Just trust me on that ok.”   
“You know how frightening it is that you know what he’s when he’s drunk and I don’t. Besides, how would you know that?” 

“We did some stupid stuff at university a few times.” Hange reminicend  
“Where was I in this equation?”   
“Uh… one time it was before you two were on good terms, and the next time it was when you were on co-op and I stayed with him at your place.”   
“You couldn't have been that drunk if you are able to recall all this? Not that I’m doubting your memory but you know, just as a reference point how drunk were you?”

“Well so you know it takes about the same amount of drinks to get me drunk as it takes Levi. Oh by the way, did you know Molbit is tougher than me and Levi? He can hold his liquor extremely well AND before you ask I ran an experiment on him, , that's how I know. But anywho, we didn’t drink that much. The first time we may have been pissed drunk, maybe. The second time, well we were more sleep deprived than drunk, either way same result. I don’t quite recall the order, was it liquor or sleep deprivation the first time?”   
“That bad eh?”, Erwin looked concern.

“Sho whatsh shitty glasses talking about while I got us food.” Levi said as he chewed on a deep fried breaded, stuffed jalapeno, that was filled with cheddar cheese which made Hange’s mouth water.

Hange left her spot beside Erwin, who she was leaning on, to grab some food off of Levi. Levi easily dodged her and before she could complain he shoved one of the stuffed jalapenos into her mouth. Levi got a muffled thank you from Hange and turned to give Erwin some food too. 

“So what were you two talking about? Spill it if you want any more food.”   
“Awww! Levi that’s such a cheap trick. And it was nothing really. Just talking about that time we got really drunk.”  
“Which one, there are so many?”, Levi questioned, more interested at deciding which snack he wanted to try next.  
“God it’s been like only twice, now feed me,” Hange exaggerated.  
“No, tell me what we did when we were drunk?”   
“Argh! I didn’t go into details but it was our poop cake, remember the microwave cake thing. And then the other time when you mph-”   
“Ok shut up now Hange!”, Levi said flustered as he stuffed more food in Hange’s mouth silencing her.   
“Well then, care to explain what she was talking about,” Erwin questioned as his interest had suddenly been peaked by the oddness of Hange’s story.  
“Not here and hopefully ever,” Levi complained.  
“Itsh noshing to be ashamed of Levi.” Hange spoke with her mouth still full.  
“Hange is right, and you know you can tell me anything,” Erwin reasoned.   
Levi nodded, clearly still flustered, “Later.”   
“Don’t worry I’ll be there to fill in the gaps,” Hange seemed way to enthusiastic to help Levi out, making Levi grimace.

“No you won’t,” Levi snapped back.  
“I think it would be better if I hear both sides of the story, as I know how you both tend to add and remove things from your stories wherever it benefits you. It’s the only way to get to the complete and true story,” Erwin said with amusement.  
“Fine. By the way Hange?”, Levi attempted to change the conversation  
“Yes~”, she sang,   
“Molbit is always invited to these events right?”   
“Yup”  
“So he gets his own ticket with a plus one right?”  
“Yup.”   
“So if he’s not your plus one then who is?” 

“You know it’s not mandatory right? I know I lied to my intern, telling him that Molbit was my plus one and it says on the tickets that a plus one is needed, but I just don’t really need one. Besides I do not have a partner to take to these things, and I’ve never really thought about taking any one with me. Molbit now insists in taking his current partner to these events, I think he thinks it makes him seem impressive, but that's besides the point. Not to mention when people describe what their relationships with their partner are like, it’s like describing the relationship I have with the two of you. So I don’t see why I need to look for someone else when I have everything I need right here.” Hange explained as if it was obvious and it made perfect sense.

Erwin and Levi looked at each other, both a little shocked and quickly trying to recall if they ever saw Hange going out with anybody. They thought back to when they were dating, and they couldn’t remember a time when Hange wasn’t present with them. Their thoughts were interrupted by Hange pointing something out, but Erwin made a mental note to ask his sister later for more details on Hange’s love life. 

“Look, Look. We need to act quickly. I think they are getting ready to leave since some of them are a little too tipsy. We need to act quick, I think we should divide and conquer.”

One of Nanaba’s workers, a pretty brunette with a pony tail, who was sneaking some snacks from the platter she was holding, caught Hange’s attention.   
“Perfect!”, Hange exclaimed.  
“What’s perfect Hange?”, Erwin asked.   
“We just need one more person,” she said, lost in thought, as she approached said brunette. “Hey!” 

The brunette girl quickly stuffed the potato skin into her mouth and froze. “Hey, um…” Hange looked at the girl’s name tag “Sasha. I need you to do me a favor. Wait you’re not Nanaba’s Sasha chef extraordinaire, are you?” 

Sasha nodded “Yes I am ma’am, but I never call myself that.” 

“Well we can discuss that later, I’m Hange your boss’s long-time friend and the one running this show tonight.” 

That seemed to be the only thing Sasha needed to know to feel more at ease, “Ok, what do you need me to do.”

“Ok I need you to take some of my, uh student interns to their rooms so they can stay the night. I don’t want them to, you know, um go home drunk and get into an accident, you understand?”   
Sasha nodded again.   
“Good, so Levi, Erwin and I will each take a pair and show them to their assigned rooms in this hotel,” Hange mentioned as she pointed to the two men who were behind her, “and you will just have to get the last two for us, I will give you the room’s key card and such.”  
“No offence but this sounds kinda sketchy,” Sasha said unimpressed.

“Listen here, potato girl. I won’t tell your boss you were eating while on the job and you’ll help us keep our interns safe. After all stranger danger and all that stuff,” Levi said in a demanding tone. 

“Statistically, it's actually more likely you’ll be attacked by those you know than a random stranger but I see your point sir,” Sasha emphasized her last words completely unfazed, clearly costumer service toughens you up a bit. 

Hange handed her the key card and pointed towards the group of interns, “I need you to take care of the tall freckled one, Ymir and her girlfriend Krista.”   
“Yes. I know them actually, so I will definitely help out but, if anything happens to them I swear I’ll…”   
“Don’t worry kid, those two will be fine,” Levi said which was all the confirmation Sasha needed for her to agree to help them out.   
“Just wait for us at the elevator, we will be there shortly,” Erwin said with a comforting smile.

Levi, Hange and Erwin walked towards their interns, as they approached the group, Levi pinched Hange’s waist to get her attention. She tilted her head as she looked at him. “Just so you know you’re a little piece of shit,” he whispered walking towards Mikasa and Annie. 

Hange grabbed onto Erwin’s jacket sleeve as she wiped a fake tear from her eyes. “Erwin~ “, she said, sniffling. “ I think Levi just told me he loved me. I hope this doesn’t affect our relationship in any way.”  
Erwin laughed and slung his arm over her as they approached Marco and Armin who were talking amiably to one another, “Don’t worry Hange I love you too.” He says as he lets go of her and kisses her cheek.

 

Marco and Armin had been spending a wonderful time talking with each other; discussing similarities about their roommates and coming up with theories, mainly as to why they don’t seem to get along, amongst other things. 

The girls also joined in and provided more stories and theories about the boys to contribute to different parts of the conversation. None of them really paying attention to what kind of drink they got any more, they just seemed to settle into a comfortable state, they all began sporting rosy cheeks. None of them ever had to really leave the area where they were sitting. As they had found a nice sitting area facing the window. Ymir, Eren and Jean were behaving and kept bringing them drinks and food. Mikasa and Annie had their hands interlaced and were sitting really close to one another, still maintaining their professional appearance. 

In contrast Ymir had Krista sitting on her lap, from time to time Ymir played with Krista’s ombre strapless dress that flared out at the knees. The dress started out white at the top and ended navy blue at the bottom, and Ymir just kept playing with the hem of it. 

Eren seemed to keep an arm around Armin’s waist protectively. At times he would rub his cheek on the top of Armin’s head affectionately, completely ignoring the conversation whenever they mentioned similarities between him and Jean. 

Similarly, Jean had hooked his arm with Marco’s and intertwined their fingers together. He rested his head on Marco’s shoulder, he was mesmerized, too busy playing with Marco’s fingers to join into the conversation much.

Levi tapped Annie on the shoulder to catch her attention, he was just about to let her know about the rooms when Hange arrived to the scene.   
“Guys!!” she exclaimed as she clapped her hands in excitement and smiled at the group. “So... it seems you guys are all enjoying the party, right?” There were a few yes’ mumbled and nods in response. 

“Great, great, and I can tell a few of you really appreciated the open bar this year. So~”, she said with such an innocent look that everyone but Erwin and Levi bought the next part of her story. “You know how you signed that weird waver when you entered the party. You all did sign, right?” 

“Yes Dr. Zoe,” Marco answered for the group.  
“Marco darling just call me Hange ok, I can tell you’re not a hundred percent sober so I’ll let it slide. Any who. So the waiver, yes. Um since you signed it, it means that we get to provide you a room for the night at the hotel. It’s two per room and I totally forgot to show you your rooms when you arrived cause I got so excited about meeting you all. So we are going to escort you to your rooms, if that’s okay with all of you.”

“But Dr.- I mean Hange. Wouldn’t that inconvenience you as you are hosting the event?”, Armin asked.   
“Nonsense!” Hange declared, nothing was going to interfere with her experiments.   
“What Hange means to say Armin, is that it was our responsibility to show you this in advance and we neglected it so we will gladly show you to your rooms. We even managed to get someone to escort Ms. Reiss and her partner-”  
“It’s Krista and Ymir,” Ymir said from behind her girlfriend  
“Very well. Someone will escort Krista and Ymir to their respective rooms. So if you wouldn’t mind, follow us.”

With that they each got up and followed the trio of bosses to the elevators where Sasha was waiting. She called the elevator as she saw Hange and the rest of the group heading her way. Sasha thought she recognized a few more faces than just Ymir and Krista’s but her view was soon blocked by Erwin who came to stand next to her. 

“Thank you for calling the elevator, Levi will go in first with his interns and I am sure you can join him with Ymir and Krista.”  
“Alrighty,” Sasha said as she stepped into the elevator as soon as the doors opened and Erwin got the attention of the ladies, “ladies first.”   
Levi stopped by the elevator door before he went in, pulling Erwin’s tie to bring him down to his level to give him a quick peck on the lips before he entered the elevator, “I’ll see you later.” 

Erwin smiled at Levi as the doors closed, he called back the elevator after Levi and the girls had left. The next elevator showed up a few seconds later. 

“Marcoooo. Marcoo~”, Jean tugged at Marco’s sleeve  
“What is it Jean?”   
“I swear I saw Sasha in that elevator.”   
“I don’t think so Jean, I mean we were there for a long time you would think we would’ve run into her if she was at the party,” Jean sighed as they entered the elevator. 

Erwin and Hange exchanged a concerned look with each other as they helped guide the boys into the elevator. 

Jean conceded, “I guess you’re right, you’re always right. Actually you’re not always right. Especially when you want to try weird experiments at home.” Marco kissed the top of Jean’s head as he chuckled a bit. 

Erwin hit the button for the floor where they had the rooms reserved as Hange tried to convince the rather tipsy boys to donate genetic material. “Ok so there is one more thing I need you four to do tonight before you are free. So the organization needs to have genetic identification for each of their members. So we need you to fill these sample cups with genetic material,” she lied as she showed them one of the sample cups she had in a bag.

Eren had been busy playing with Armin’s hair during the entire thing tuning in at the end, “So in other words you want us to jack off into the cups,” he stated as he went back to playing with Armin’s hair. Armin blushed he couldn't believe Eren just said that. Okay, scratch that, EREN would totally say that but he never thought he would say it to his and Marco’s bosses! 

“Exactly!”, Hange exclaimed as she pointed to Eren.  
Eren just nodded and laid his head on Armin’s again as he agreed. “Ok, sure. I’ll do it.”   
“Perfect, let me know if you need any material to hel-” Hange was interrupted by the bing of the elevator, the doors opening.

Once they had stepped out Hange kept talking, “Ok so before we take you to your room let me give each of you your sample cup. It has your name on it already, and when you’re done just put it in this bag and hang it outside on the door handle. Someone from the organization will come and pick it up, okay.” 

Hange gave Armin and Marco a bag with the sample cups in it. As they looked into the bags, Erwin took the opportunity to whisper into Hange’s ear, “you’re going to wait for them to put it on the door aren’t you?” Hange just smirked at him and nodded, Erwin shrugged as he let out a sigh. 

“Now Armin and Eren if you would follow me please, I will take you to your room.” Armin nodded and grabbed Eren’s hand to guide him as they followed Erwin. At the same time, he struggled to make Eren stop playing with his hair. 

“You two, just follow me.” Hange waved Marco and Jean to the opposite side of the hallway. Jean was absentmindedly staring at the opposite direction watching Armin and Eren follow Erwin.

“Jean come on,” Marco said quietly as he shook him slightly. Jean turned around and followed Marco grabbing onto the back of Marco’s jacket before he took another step. 

Hange loved how cute they looked, Jean was acting like a little kid hiding behind his mom and Marco loving every second of it. She was hopping Erwin was enjoying this as much as she was, since his boys were being adorable as well. Eren was just a cuddle monkey and Armin kept staring at Eren’s lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took forever to update. I had drawings to work on and then school interfered with editing sessions.


	12. Being Fluent in Eren

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren is a little to excited to fill his sample cup, and Armin might just need to give him a hand with it. :)

Eren walked into the room as soon as Armin unlocked it, heading straight onto the bed, starfishing on top of it with a loud ‘umph’. Armin thanked Erwin for everything and wished him a goodnight before he closed the door. 

Armin turned around, his back resting on the door as he sighed, Eren had turned over on the bed and was currently staring at the ceiling. Armin began approaching the bed, his friend was much too quiet for it to be normal. 

As Armin took a few steps closer, Eren jumped off the bed, startling Armin. Eren ran up to Armin, “Arrrrmin!! We have a mission to complete, I can’t just sleep. Come on, pull out the thingy that the Hange lady gave us.” 

Armin was just about to protest that it can wait till they were more sober when Eren took the bag away from him and dumped the contents on the bed. “Eren why did you do that?”  
“I couldn’t find the cup with my name on it, so this is faster.”  
Armin facepalmed, “Eren did you even look?” Eren shook his head, ‘Of course he didn’t’ Armin thought to himself.  
“Ah ha!” Eren exclaimed in fascination as he found his cup amongst the few items in the bag. 

The bag contained two sample cups, a small pack of condoms, some lube as well as an adult magazine. Once Eren had his sample cup in hand he began to strip, sending his jacket and dress shirt flying. With a sigh, Armin quickly knelt down to pick them up, after all they had just bought these expensive garments. 

As Armin collected the discarded items he struggled a bit on the way back up, realizing that he wasn’t as sober as he thought he was. Armin placed Eren’s clothes and his own jacket on the stool by the TV stand, he turned around when he heard a loud thud and ‘umph’ from Eren. 

“Armin nooo~ Don’t look at my ass!”, Eren exclaimed. Eren had somehow face planted on the ground; he was on his knees with his pants and boxer briefs scrunched up at his ankles, his butt was up in the air, his hands still holding onto the waistband of his pant and his face planted on the carpet. Somehow he kept his tie on through the whole mishap. 

“Eren, stop squirming around and let me help you up,” Armin said as he approached his very drunk friend.

“Noooooo,” Eren whined. “Stop looking at me! Don’t look at my ass, I’m naked!”  
Armin kneeled down beside Eren, “Eren stop, I am going to help you up, okay.” Eren just pouted and shook his head, “But I’m naked.” 

Armin let an exasperated sigh escape as a small smile appeared on his lips. “Eren Jaeger! Just stop, ok. I have seen you’re naked butt plenty of times before, so how is this any different.”  
Eren scowled at him but was still pouting, making him look adorable in Armin’s eyes. 

“What?” Eren just turned his head and faced the other way, “Eren what is it?” Armin said with a bit of a giggle in his voice.  
“It’s not true.”  
“What’s not true?”  
“It looks better than before.”  
“What does?”

Eren turned to face Armin again, a furious blush spreading across his face clearly not from the alcohol, as he avoided eye contact with Armin.  
“My butt.” Eren mumbled.  
“It looks the same as always,” Armin said taking a quick glance hoping the other didn’t catch him looking. 

“Not true Armin! I have been working real hard to make it look amazingly toned for the last year or so. It’s different, can’t you tell, look it's nicely round and perky,” Eren said while simultaneously wiggling his butt as a big goofy smile spread on his face. That just made Armin blush more and get extremely flustered as he looked between Eren’s face and his butt.

“Touch it, touch it, so you’ll see the difference.”  
Armin went beet red then, his eyes were huge in response making the blue hue pop.  
“E… Eren.. I am… I am not touc…touching your butt, ok? Especially when you’re like…”  
“Like what Ar?”  
“When your face-down-bootie-up drunk on the floor. Now come on. Up you go,” Armin said with as much determination and control as he could. He tried to concentrate on getting his friend off the floor, but the more effort he put into it the more Eren was smiling at him and chuckling as he wobbled his way up onto his feet.

Armin managed to get Eren to sit at the edge of the bed, he knelt down between Eren’s legs to help him with his pants. “You are going to have to take a shower, the floor and the top cover of any hotel bed are filthy.” 

“I know,” Eren sighed the words, regretting his current actions.  
“Then why did you do it Eren, what are you a filthy mongrel?” Before Eren could respond, Armin was struggling to get Eren’s clothes past his ankles. “How did you even manage to get everything so tangled up, yet somehow perfectly remove your socks?”  
“Skills”  
Armin cocked an eyebrow as he looked up at Eren between his legs. 

Eren reached out to cup Armin’s face and caressed the pale boy’s cheeks with his thumb. “Armin, you’re so beautiful you know.” Armin leaned into Eren’s touch as he place his left hand on top of Eren’s but he couldn't look Eren in the face.  
“You're drunk you know.”  
“Maybe just a little bit, but please take my pants off I need to fill the sample cup.”  
Armin sighed and complied by removing Eren’s pants.  
“You are aware that to get a sperm sample you didn’t need to get naked right?”  
Eren’s eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as the realization hit him. He was flushed all the way to his chest, completely embarrassed, how had he managed to make such a fool of himself in front of Armin, the love of his life, everything he ever needed. But it was still just Armin, he probably had seen a lot worse but this was not right when all he wanted to do was impress his everything. 

Armin covered his mouth to try and stop the smile that was forming. Eren stood up then, face still flushed but he was looking away from Armin and intently staring at the door instead. He had tensed up, his shoulders were raised a bit, his arms tightly by his side and his hands were balled up into trembling fist. 

Armin wasn’t sure what to make of Eren’s sudden movements but carefully stood up from his current position, “Eren you should go shower,” he said as he approached a very attractive and naked Eren. 

He knew this wasn’t the time to do this but he couldn’t help but look Eren’s body up and down in all it’s naked glory. It was not the first time he had seen him naked, they had bathed together when they were children and in public showers at the gym but he never had the opportunity to truly appreciate his best friends body. 

He was a Greek god, nothing like what Dr. Smith would probably look like, according to Miss. Potachio’s theories but to Armin’s standards Eren was already there. After all he wasn’t a fitness instructor for no reason.

As he kept staring, Eren made eye contact with him, he wasn’t sure what Armin was looking so intensely at or maybe it was that he had suddenly found the answer to one of the many questions he always had stored up in his head.

Whatever it was it was going to have to wait. Eren squared his shoulders and took a deep breath, he was going to do it, he had to, he told himself. He closed the gap between the two of them and wrapped his arms around Armin and pulled him into a hug. 

Armin was pulled out of his sinful train of thought when he felt those warm, muscular and yet gentle arms he loved so much wrap him in a tight hug. He could help but nuzzle into Eren’s chest and return the hug himself. 

He felt Eren chuckle, “Armin?” Said boy just nodded without lifting his face from its resting place on Eren’s chest.  
“Come shower with me. Please?”  
“I don’t know Er-” 

Eren interrupted Armin, he wasn’t sure how to phrase this properly and all the booze in his brain made it all the more challenging but he hoped it would get his message out loud and clear 

“Aan...andcanyouhelpmefillthesamplecupcauseyourtheonlyoneIwanttoeverhelpmewiththissortofthingfortherestofmylife,” there was a pause for Eren to take a breath “and um before yo..you ask yesIhavethoughtaboutitandyouaretheoneandonlyformeIloveyousomuchArmin." 

Eren didn’t think he could turn another shade of red but he was proven wrong by his reflection in the mirror he was facing. He also couldn’t look Armin in the face instead he took the opportunity to hide his face in the crook of Armin’s neck. It was the perfect spot to be honest, not only did it smell so nice, it was soft, it tickled Armin and he could hide behind Armin’s lovely blond hair.

Armin tried to lift his head in order to answer, he found it a bit challenging seeing how Eren wasn’t budging to give him room to move. 

Armin though he caught most of what Eren said, he had many years of practice but he wasn’t a hundred percent fluent in Eren yet and the way Eren was breathing on his neck tickled and sent shivers down his spine. 

“Eren, I’ve known you for a long time,” Armin sighed, and Eren tensed up ‘this is it’ he thought to himself ‘he’s going to reject me’ which made him hold on to Armin even tighter.  
“But even with the vast amount of time we have spent together, I am not fluent in Eren.”  
Eren didn’t know he was holding his breath until he released it with a small chuckle that quickly turned into full on laugh. Armin gave him a squeeze, then moved one hand to pat Eren’s head and used his other hand to attack Eren’s ribs and armpit. 

“Come on big boy let's go shower and I’ll give you a hand with that too.”  
Eren looked up from his hiding spot, he couldn't believe his sweet, pure little Armin had actually agreed. He looked to Armin’s face, still in disbelief to see not Armin, but a cherry tomato that resembled Armin. 

Eren kissed both of Armin’s cheeks and continued to kiss his little tomatoes’ burning face making his way to Armin’s lips. The constant administration of flitting kisses that showered his face and brushed his lips made Armin laugh, Eren only stopped when Armin swatted him away and pointed to the bathroom. 

Eren grabbed the forgotten cups with one hand and intertwined his free hand with Armin’s, swinging their clasped hands with such joy as he headed for what he hoped would be a nice long shower.

Both boys were smiling as they entered the bathroom. Eren let go of Armin’s hand to turn on the lights and placed the two sample cups on the sink. He turned around and placed both hands on Armin’s cheeks and kissed the love of his life. 

It started out with little pecks on Armin’s smiling face. Armin had moved his arms to Eren’s upper arm, feeling Eren’s biceps and triceps while at the same time pulling him closer not content with the distance between them. 

The taller boy complied, Eren really didn’t need much edging on to do anything Armin requested. Eren was willing to move mountains, bring down the moon and stars, really anything for Armin, Armin just needed to ask. 

Their kiss was tender, both of them enjoying being able to embrace each other knowing full well that this was what they both wanted and longed for. Eren began moving them towards the toilet seat, he was thankful the lid was covering the toilet as he sat down and pulled Armin closer. Armin wrapped his arms around Eren’s neck and ran his fingers through Eren’s chocolate locks as he straddled him. 

Eren released Armin’s lips, he kept kissing Armin’s cheeks, jaw line and slowly made his way down to where he knew Armin was more sensitive. He kissed, licked and nipped at the blond’s neck enjoying the feeling of Armin tightening his hold on his hair, and the sweet panting and little moans that escaped from Armin’s mouth. 

Armin felt Eren’s erection and noticed his own dress pants were getting a little too tight, he wanted to remove them but didn’t want Eren to stop what he was doing. Armin began rocking his hips back and forth, in response to the way Eren’s hands travelled down his body.

Eren’s hands made their way down to grip Armin’s hips and buns making Armin grind on him even harder. This time it was Eren’s breath that faltered as he continued to keep kissing Armin’s face and neck.

“Eren” Armin exhaled his name, “Eren” he said a little more forceful as he patted the other's shoulder.  
Eren stopped, and pulled away to look at Armin’s face. Armin didn’t look uncomfortable, he was blushing and his pupils were dilated that you could barely see a hint of his gorgeous blue irises. 

“What is it Ar?”, Armin took a second to calm his breath before he spoke,  
“I need to take these clothes off.”  
Eren liked how direct Armin was, it made him smile knowing that his timid Armin was enjoying this as much as him. 

Armin got off of Eren, taking a few steps back so he could undress. He took off his tie and began working on removing his dress shirt. Eren helped him out by undoing his pants, and Armin lifted his foot to make things easier on Eren. 

Eren took a moment to appreciate Armin’s beauty, despite what others may think Armin was toned and he could take anyone down when provoked. Eren knew this all too well after all they had been workout buddies in high school and he himself had pissed of Armin plenty of times in their lives to fully know not to underestimate him. 

Eren played with the elastic of Armin’s briefs with one hand as his other hand explored the planes of Armin’s abs and chest. He pulled Armin closer to him and began kissing his stomach and hips traveling lower as he took off Armin’s underwear. 

Armin let him do whatever he wanted, enjoying the attention. He brought his hands back to play with Eren’s hair and threw his head back when he felt Eren kissing and licking his erection. 

Armin’s underwear was left forgotten at his ankles as Eren focused his attention on Armin’s dick. His left hand snaked its way up to pull Armin closer as his right hand and tongue worked their way up and down Armin’s dick. 

Armin tripped on his underwear as Eren kept pulling him closer making his pelvis crash into Eren’s face.  
“Ah sorry Eren,” Armin said with embracement laced in his words as he righted himself and stumbled out of his underwear. 

Eren smiled gently back at him helping Armin stabilize himself, “Don’t worry Ar, just come back over here.” He said as he pat his leg, Armin complied and straddled Eren yet again. 

Armin chuckled, as he sat on Eren and said boy’s arms wrapped themselves around him. “What is it? Did I do something wrong?”  
Armin reached forward to touch Eren’s chest his hands played with the tie Eren was still wearing.

“I just can’t believe neither of us noticed you were still wearing this,” Armin mentioned as he looked at the tie he was currently undoing for Eren. Eren began kissing Armin again, this time leaving little marks along the way. Armin kissed the top of Eren’s head and used his hands to stroke their erections together. 

He started slowly moving his hand up on down both their shafts but mainly focusing on Eren’s pleasure, making sure to rub his thumb over the tip of Eren’s penis causing Eren to shudder and gasp in pleasure. Eren’s hand quickly joined Armin’s. 

“Ar-min, I don’t think I-ah, can- any much longer.”  
“Er-ren, me neither. Ju-ust grab the, nh cu-cups.”  
It was happening way too fast for their liking but just the fact that they could finally do this had caused things to escalate rather quickly. 

Eren fumbled with one hand for the cups that he had placed on the sink earlier, without taking his eyes off of Armin’s face which was staring back at him just as intensely. They untangled themselves, Armin grabbed the cup with his name and with just a few short strokes they both came into the cups. 

“I think next time we should do this again but no cups involved, unless you're into that of course.” Eren gave Armin a silly smile as Armin closed the lids on both their cups.  
“I don’t know Eren, the sample cups just brought this, sigh I don’t know sense of…” Eren smacked Armin in the rear,  
“You little shit, you.” 

Both boys laughed at each other and Eren reached out to embrace Armin one more time. “You are the most amazing, beautiful, smart and sarcastic person I have ever meet and there is no one I rather spend my life with than you.” 

Armin pulled back enough to kiss Eren on the nose, “Why don’t you start the shower while I get rid of these, okay.” Armin said as he wiggled both of the containers.  
“No,” he said tightening his hold on Armin, “stay with me.”  
“Eren, I’ll be right back, I am just putting it outside the door, okay.”  
“Armin who cares, you can do that later.” 

“Listen the faster I get these out of here the less chance we will be interrupted, okay.”  
Eren still wouldn’t budge, Armin sighed. 

“I’ll make you a deal. Let me put these where they belong and when I come back I’ll give you a blow job. Okay?”  
Eren reluctantly let go of Armin and did as he was told, ‘well I guess he’s not as innocent as I thought’, he smiled to himself.

In the meantime Erwin was waiting for Hange by the elevator. He knew she would choose that spot to wait as it was out of sight from the rooms but still allowed her to be inconspicuously waiting. He had a feeling Hange was expecting to get the genetic material from the boys relatively soon after they showed them their rooms. Hange showed up only a few minutes later.  
“What took you so long?”, he said cocking an eyebrow as he crossed his arms.  
“Oh Erwin, they are so cute!”, Hange squealed as she brought her hands to cover her smile. “I just can’t wait!” Hange wrapped him in a bear hug as he chuckled at her excitement. The doors to the elevator opened, Hange and Erwin turned around when they heard an all too familiar voice.  
“Tch, go figure. I leave for a second and you two are celebrating. Shitty four eyes you are too excited about this and it seems to be contagious,” Levi said as he walked towards them, “bushy brows is already infected and has his expectations set way too high for my liking.”  
Both Hange and Erwin’s joy had stilled as they looked down at Levi. They both knew that deep down Levi was just as happy as they were that the interns had bought into it and agreed to participate.

“Aw, Levi you really do care, don’t you?”, Hange looked at him with a mischievous glint in her eyes as she released Erwin.  
“Hnn, whatever four eyes, just wanted to make sure you put the brats to bed. I don’t want to be responsible for whatever results from all the alcohol they consumed,” Levi retorted in a displeased and aloof tone.  
“Come now Levi, don’t tell me you aren’t excited?” Erwin pressed knowing full well that deep down Levi was the one that actually wanted the family he never had.  
“So where are your goodie bags?”, Levi avoided Erwin’s stare and opted for a swift change of topic to prevent any further embarrassment. The question managed to distract Hange and prompted her to tell them how it should only take, in her opinion, no more than 15 minutes. Erwin on the other hand was not fooled and smiled as he watched Hange animatedly go on.  
“Shush,” Hange said as she held a finger against her lip and placed another onto Levi’s. Levi grumbled as he swatted her hand away.  
“Hange what the he-,” Levi was abruptly interrupted by Hange’s hand covering his mouth.  
“I said SHUSH,” she glared at him.  
“Hange what it is?”, Erwin whispered.  
“I heard doors being shut” 

Levi brushed the offending hand of his mouth and sighed  
“Shitty four eyes there are thousands of rooms on this floor how can you expect it to be them?”, Levi stated in a hushed voice.  
“Levi, seriously we have been standing here talking for about what I estimate almost an hour and no one has come in and out of the elevators. So who else would open and shut their door but not leave their room. Did you hear that? That’s another door and it came from the opposite side.”  
Levi looked at Erwin for help, the other just shrugged. Seeing as he wasn’t going to get any help from Erwin he sighed, “Want me to go get them for you?” he offered.  
“Levi you don’t have to, I can quickly run and get them both.”  
“Not in those heels, you will probably trip and face plant on the floor, most likely breaking your ankle in the process too.” As Levi talked he saw how Hange’s face dropped, he didn’t like seeing her like that. “But how about I cut you a deal instead?”, Levi continued making Hange perk up a smidge. “You go get the ones that belong to YOUR intern and I go get Erwin’s and then we all go to our room and just sleep.”  
Hange considered it for a bit shifting her weight from one foot to the other. “Ok, only if we get to cuddle.”  
“HANGE,” Levi growled.  
“Hmm, I think that sounds lovely, I mean if we all get cleaned up it would be nice to cuddle for a bit before we sleep,” Erwin stepped in, causing Levi to glare at him and Hange to throw her hands up in the air with an excited ‘yes’.  
“Now go get what you need and be careful not to fall,” he continued as Hange turned the corner.

Levi faced Erwin “Why did you even agree to such a thing?”  
“I could ask you the same thing?” Erwin retorted.  
“Tch, she was going to end up in our room either way.”  
“Exactly, so might as well invite her. Is cuddling really that bad? We always do it and she joins from time to time either way.”  
“Whatever I’ll go get that disgusting shit so we can get out of here.”  
Once Levi came back with the bag from Eren and Armin’s door he quickly threw it at Hange who caught it with ease.  
“Ok guys let’s get to bed, but first I gotta put these in the fridge to preserve them.” Hange exclaimed excitedly, while Levi seemed grossed out.  
“Oh gross Hange I can’t believe you.”  
“This coming from the guy who cleans random shit for a living and goes around killing people. How can some semen freak you out so much but you’re ok with other bodily fluids like blood?”  
“Just shut up and let's go, okay,” Levi said as he affectionately kicked her butt and they entered the elevator that Erwin had waiting for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was suppose to be a fluffy chapter. The wifu specifically asked for that. I just destroyed her dream. Again I want to thank @the1nerdygeek and LadyHades for putting up with my "writting". Especially this chapter where I went from, "yeah, I know human anatomy and physiology" to 'What is a penis?" O.o


	13. Why Do I Love You?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ymir and Krista tried to help them out all night, and now Jean and Marco are both a little drunk and alone in a room.

“Alright boys this is your room,” Hange said opening the door for them.   
Jean stepped in and looked around the room, “It looks rather nice, seems like the company pays well.”   
“Thank you so much Hange” Marco said as Hange handed him his key card. Jean came back to the door once he was satisfied with his inspection and looped his arm with Marco’s. 

“I’ll leave you two alone now, have a good night and if you need anything you have my number,” Hange said with a wide smile on her face.   
“Thank you again, Hange,” Marco said as Jean began rubbing his cheek on his shoulder 

“Night, night, and thank you.”   
Marco face palmed, “I am sorry about Jean, I know he gets clingy and acts like a kid when he’s drunk.” 

“Oh Marco dear, don’t worry about it. Just take care of him and have a good night, okay,” Hange said as she patted his cheek and closed the door for them.

Once the door was fully closed Marco let out a sigh, “Jeeeaan~.” Jean hummed a response but didn’t look up, too fascinated with Marco’s tie to care.   
“I can’t believe you just acted like that in front of my boss.” 

Jean looked up then, he had a toothy grin plastered on his face as he took both of Marco’s hands into his. “It’s ok Marco, it’s not like she really cared anyways. Plus I ran into her more than once at the bar so she may not even remember this tomorrow.”   
“I am more concerned if you will remember this tomorrow.” 

Jean’s smile quickly turned into a scowl as he let go of his hands, he turned away from Marco and walked towards the bed frustrated. ‘Marco is so dense, here I am trying to fli-’ Jean’s thoughts stopped as he realized he missed something when he first scanned the room. “There’s only one bed,” He whispered to himself. 

“What was that Jean?” Marco said as he took of his jacket and hung it up, and removed his shoes.   
“I said there’s only one bed...” 

Jean tossed his jacket towards Marco, clearly he was not as drunk as Marco thought he was as his aim was just as good as ever. Marco hung it up while Jean kicked of his shoes and loosened his tie. 

“I don’t see a problem with it do you? I mean we use to share a bed when we were younger and if I remember correctly we sometimes still do when someone, not saying any names here, but when someone gets to scared after he watches a specific type of movie.” 

Jean threw his tie at Marco, “Hey!”   
Marco turned to look at Jean who was now sitting on the bed and pouting.   
“It’s not that I don’t like sharing a bed but shouldn’t they have given us two beds if they knew I was coming with you.” Marco picked up the bag Hange had given him, from the floor as he approached Jean and dumped it on the bed to be forgotten.

“Hmm that’s true, maybe they screwed up somewhere,” Marco said still a little hurt that Jean was ticked off at them having to share a bed  
“Somehow I doubt that. I mean Dr. Zoe was acting weirder than normal.”   
“That’s true, it could be the stress of hosting the event or maybe you were right. She may have had more than she should have had to drink.”   
Jean grunted in affirmation. 

“Speaking of which, Jean how much did you have?”   
“You saw what I drank Marco.”   
“True but I know my cousin, tell me did she make you drink anything when you were at the bar?” 

Jean shrugged “Just a few shots, nothing much, but don’t worry I declined when I knew it was getting to be too much.”   
Marco smiled at him “Good” he patted Jean on the back and began to unbutton his own dress shirt, there was no way they were getting these ruined. Marco got up and walked back towards the closet. 

“But she did put the ones I rejected into your drinks,” Jean gave a cocky smile while Marco choked on his spit,   
“Wait, what?”

Jean began undressing too, taking his suit, shirt and pants off. “I’m surprised you never realized how tipsy you yourself were at the party,” Jean said smugly as he got up, walking towards the closet to hang his shirt and pants up, taking the hanger Marco was holding.

“Hey, that was supposed to be mine you know.”   
Jean shrugged as he took Marco’s shirt from him and hung it up beside his own. Marco began to remove his pants as Jean gave a small laugh. 

“What is it?” Marco said as he straightened up and hung his pants.   
“You know Marco,” He said as he ran a hand up his best friend’s chest “You have sooo many freckles.” he poked at a few of them as he continued to let his hands roam his best friend's body.

Marco rolled his eyes at the comment. “They’re so pretty, you’re so pretty. It's almost as if you were covered in stardust.” Marco pulled him in for a hug as he snorted at Jean’s silly babble, wrapping his arms around the small of Jean’s back and kissing the top of his best friend’s head while swaying them back and forth. 

“Well thank you and you know?,” He could feel Jean smiling as he hummed a response, “You're such a big baby especially when you're drunk.”   
No response from Jean except the shaking of his body which indicated Jean was trying his best to keep his laughter in.

‘Odd’ he thought to himself, ‘definitely odd, he should have reacted more defensive’. He looked down to check up on Jean.   
“Jean, cariño, are you ok?”   
“I’m perrrfect Marrco,” he purred   
“Are you sure?” Marco raised an eyebrow as he asked again.   
“Shhh I’m fine kay, couldn’t be better.” 

Jean said his hands finally stopped playing with Marco’s freckled skin. Instead using them to wrap Marco into his embrace as he rubbed his head where it had been resting along the crook of Marco’s neck. Marco giggled the most pure and whole hearted giggle that you can bet your tushi you’ve ever heard. 

“Seriously what are you doing? Scent marking me or something?”   
“Mine,” Jean whispered as he began to kiss the area. Marco couldn’t say he wasn’t enjoying it and clearly so was Jean, he could feel a bulge in Jean’s constellation boxer briefs as Jean pressed closer to him. 

Marco could only hope that his own was not as obvious. Jean smiled into his neck, as he felt Marco beginning to get hard through his underwear and continued leaving little hickeys around the area. 

‘Ok maybe it was obvious’ he sighed, Marco didn’t want it to stop but his friend was drunk and it would be taking advantage of him. “Hey Jean, why don’t we go check what’s in the bag Hange gave us okay?” 

Jean looked at the discarded bag on the bed and smiled at Marco, his eyes sparkled and Marco knew he was up to no good right there and then, he was totally going to regret suggesting this. 

“Okie” Jean led them both towards the bed,   
“Okie...? Jean what kind of drinks did you have with Ymir?”   
“Mainly shots,” Jean said casually as he pulled out the contents of the bag one by one, inspecting each one as he went along. 

“What kinds Jean?”, Marco said as leaned in to get a better look at Jean’s face. Jean could be professional liar when he wanted to but, today he wasn't feeling up to the task and clearly he knew Marco wasn’t going to be happy when he gave him an answer either way.

“Shots Marco, just shots,” he muttered.  
“Jean?”, Marco warned.  
Jean looked at Marco then, anger clearly bubbling under the surface. ‘Why was Marco doubting him, he didn't do anything wrong tonight. He even played nicely with Jaeger’. 

Marco tried to calm him down, he sat down on the bed and stopped Jean’s hands from pulling things out of the bag. “Jean what type of shots? I need to know what she gave you ok. I just want to make sure that if you die from liver failure I can have proof to sue Ymir or the bartender. Whichever has more money I guess?”

“ Isn’t that the Coroner’s job to figure that out?”   
“No, their job is to just prove I am right.”   
“But you’re always right, aren’t you?” 

Marco shrugged and looked down at his feet as he let go of Jean’s hands. “I guess so.” “Hnn, I beg to differ people just believe you cuz they think you're cute and innocent.” Marco brought his hand to rub the back of his neck and a little blush appeared on his face, ‘did Jean just call him cute again?’

Jean thought Marco looked adorable especially when he looked up at him with that silly smile that caused Marco’s dimples to show and he had all those stupid freckles that he wanted to kiss, plastered on his face. 

“You’re terrible,” Jean said and before Marco even had a chance to say anything there was a click sound and something cold and wet landed on Marco’s face. He recoiled and reached for his face as Jean cackled onto the bed. 

“Jean what the hell did you squirt on my face?!”, he exclaimed as he tried to wipe it with the back of his hands.   
“Pft, lube,” Jean said with amusement in his voice.   
“JEAN!”  
“What~ It was in the bag and hey, this too.” 

He threw the sample cup that had Marco’s name written on it at his baffled face. With lube covered hands it made it hard for Marco to catch it, he fumbled a bit but managed to get a firm grip on it. 

Jean just laughed even more at Marco’s struggle and Marco retaliated by wiping some of the lube from his own face down Jean’s face and torso. 

“Argh gross, Marco stop.” He squirmed around, “you were supposed to use that to help you with the thing.” 

Jean pointed to the cup in Marco’s hand and wiggled his own. Marco sighed, he was hoping to get some help with it from Jean, in a way he guessed he had but not the way he wanted. “Fine.” Marco said as he got up, “I’ll go take care of things in the bathroom and you do your thing here.” 

Jean didn’t look happy or maybe it was just hopeful thinking, or maybe he was just too drunk exactly like Jean had said, either way he couldn’t leave him looking sad like that. As he reached the bathroom door he turned around to face Jean again. 

“By the way Jean-” Jean was propped up on his elbows, looking up from his spot on the bed, he looked gorgeous like that and to think Jean’s attention was only his at the moment. 

“When did you open the bottle?”   
“God Bodt, you’re so easily distracted when you stare at my handsome visage.”  
“I wasn’t distracted. I just wanted to confirm if you were born looking that way or if it was the results of one too many fights, that’s all.”

“Fuck off!”, Jean shrieked as he flung the now opened little box of condoms, that he had been playing with, sending them flying everywhere as Marco closed the door just in time to miss the incoming box.

Both of them sighed as they were finally apart and in different rooms. Jean stared at the ceiling as he rubbed his right eye with the heel of his palm, this wasn’t what he wanted. He was tipsy yes, ok, maybe a little drunk actually but he thought things were going so well. Especially since Ymir kept telling him to go for it, she did put a lot of effort into making sure Marco got some heavy drinks. All of them disguised with enough sweetness to give anyone diabetes just to ”loosen him up and give him a small push” or so she had said. There was no hope, Marco was as straight as they come. ‘Well…’ he pondered as he looked at the cup he was still holding, ’guess I might as well get this over and done with, there was no point in putting it off or hoping Marco would suggest we help each other out’.

At the same time Marco was leaning against the wall, why did he get his hopes up. Seriously Krista and Ymir, especially Ymir. Just because they swung that way didn’t mean that everyone else did. Jean’s never looked at him like that, for goodness sake. Instead he stared at Mikasa in awe all night. 

Unfortunately for Jean she was happy with her current partner, Annie, so he didn’t attempt any flirting with her or else Eren, Annie and even Mikasa herself would have made things clear one way or another. 

He sighed again as he looked at himself in the mirror that was above the sink. He washed his hands removing the lube from his face and hair. Sighing once again he talked to his reflection making sure Jean couldn't hear, “Marco you look like a desperate piece of shit. You have to get over him soon.” 

He tried convincing himself as he stared at the handy work Jean had left behind, those hickeys were not going to be easy to explain to a sober Jean tomorrow. He leaned back, hitting the wall, he crossed his arms and sighed again

“Who am I kidding. Jean is a piece of work and I know that all too well but…” he smiled as he brought his hands towards his eyes to will the tears to stop. Regardless of his efforts they still managed to escape. 

“I am such a loser, I can’t keep doing this. Maybe I should move out. Gosh I can’t, that would destroy him and I know it. I can’t shut him out. Even if-” he sniffed “if I do move out he’s going to find excuses to spend his time at my place.”

He laughed at himself, “Makes it almost seem like he likes me.” A soft sad smile crossed his lips as a few more tears rolled down his cheeks. He wiped them away and washed his face again, he couldn’t come out in such a state, it would just make Jean ask more questions and he didn’t need a full out rejection at the moment.

Marco filled his cup and came out of the bathroom, “Jean?” he looked around the room, he couldn’t see him. “Jean where are you?” 

He put his cup down beside Jean’s on the night stand, that’s when he heard sniffling coming from the other side of the bed. 

He walked around the bed to find Jean curled up and wiping his eyes as Marco knelt down and sat beside him. He reached behind Jean to try and comfort him just for Jean to swat his hand away and look the opposite way attempting to hide his face from Marco. 

“Leave me alone Marco.”   
“Jean I can’t leave you here crying by yourself. What’s wrong, please tell me?”   
“Just go and get rid of the cups ok. Go do that,” Jean uttered sternly.  
“If I do will you tell me what’s wrong?”   
Jean remained silent, Marco waited a couple of minutes but still nothing, at least Jean had stopped crying. 

“Fine, get your ass into bed and I will put the samples outside.”   
Jean nodded and Marco took the samples from the nightstand and placed them in the bag that they came from. He strolled to the door, but as he opened the door to put them outside he looked back to make sure Jean had done as he was told.

Jean was indeed in bed, he had covered himself with the blankets the only visible part of him now being the messy blob of sandy blond hair that poked out at the top. Marco left the samples outside the door and then shut it.

He walked back towards the bed and as he raised the blankets, he managed to place one knee on the bed before he was stopped by Jean who had turned over to facing him with a scowl on his face.  
“Marco take them off.” he ordered pointing to Marco’s underwear  
Marco looked down at his boxer briefs in confusion. “Jean wha-”   
“They were on the floor, take them off! You are not coming in here with dirty undies so take them off.” 

Marco rolled his eyes as he sighed and complied with Jean’s demands, he was too tired to deal with anymore bullshit. “If you had a problem with my Assassins Creed undies you should have said something when I bought them.”   
“Just take them off and get in bed, I want to sleep,” Jean pouted and looked away

Marco caught sight of a serious blush on his face. “Yeah, yeah. You big baby.” He said with amusement as he got into bed with Jean, who scooted closer to Marco and poked him in the arm. Marco turned over to face Jean and looked down at him. 

“But I’m your big baby right?,” Jean said trying his best to stay hidden under the cover only his eyes and burning red ears being visible.

It broke Marco’s heart, oh, did he wish Jean looked at him like that all the time. Marco turned over and draped his arm over Jean’s body under the covers and pulled him closer so that their knees were touching. 

“Yes, yes you are.”   
Jean smacked him playfully on the his chest   
“Phineas and Ferb much. Someone has been watching too much Disney channel lately.” Marco smiled at him, Jean let his hand rest on Marco’s chest only to have the taller one recoil.  
“Oh sorry I...” Jean said disheartened.  
“Holy fuck Jean you're freezing!” Marco took both of Jean’s hands into his to attempt to warm them up a bit. 

“It’s ok Marco the room is just a bit cold, I can go turn up the heat,” Jean mumbled as he scooted away from Marco in order to get up only to be stopped by Marco’s hand. 

“Jean for once just shut up and come here and sleep with me.” Jean nodded and adhered to Marco’s demand, he definitely didn’t need to get told twice. He went back to how they were positioned and interlaced their legs, Marco shuddered as Jean’s cold feet made contact with his skin. 

“Sorry,” Jean tried to apologies just to get shushed by Marco and be pulled in even closer. Marco rested his head on top of Jean’s. Jean had his face comfortably resting on Marco’s arm and getting an up close and personal look at his freckled collarbone and chest. 

Both were blushing furiously, thankful for the darkness and the fact that the other couldn’t see their face in this position. Jean wrapped his arms around Marco and pressed his face even closer and he forced his eyes close. 

Marco reciprocated the motion by kissing Jean’s head and tightening his possessive hold around his best friend. 

They fell asleep warm and comfortable in each other’s arms wishing they could do this every night.

The next morning Jean was the first to wake up. He didn’t move much as he was enjoying being loosely held in Marco’s arms. 

The sunlight danced over his features beautifully, Jean couldn’t help but caress Marco’s sleeping face. He moved some of Marco’s bangs out of the way as he tenderly stroked the side of his face. He let his hand rest on Marco’s cheek and stroked it with his thumb. He had to tell him, but he was a coward and he knew it, but this was the perfect opportunity. He could say it to Marco’s face and never have to worry about getting rejected. He had wanted to tell him for such a long time, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. 

‘It’s now or never’ he told himself again as he took a deep breath to calm his nerves. 

“You’re so beautiful Marco.” He started of quietly and tenderly, “and I just know that one day you’re not going to be by my side anymore and it hurts so much.” 

Jean had to stop and take a deep breath, he couldn’t start crying right now, he needed to tell him. Hard as he tried his eyes obscured the angelic view of Marco’s face as they watered even more. 

“I love you so much and I hate myself every day for it. I wish I could give you everything-” Jean concealed a cry behind his other hand, he didn’t want to wake him. 

“I wish I could …. god why couldn’t I have been born a woman. Then I could give you the family you’ve always wanted.” 

Jean was beginning to shake, he knew he had to make it quick, Marco was beginning to frown meaning that soon he would wake up. Marco hated waking up in general, it made Jean smile a bit as he stared at his precious Schätzchen. No mein Schatz , there was no word that could sum it up better than that.

“Now I have to watch you get what you want with someone else and I don’t know if I can do it. And I am sorry that I am such a coward and will never be able to tell you all this because you will reject me.” 

Jean was breaking down crying now, he couldn’t stop it anymore, but he didn’t want Marco to wake up and see him like this. 

“It’s not fair! I should have been a girl and then everything would- I could have been your actual housewife,” Jean’s hand began to slip from Marco’s face only to be caught by Marco’s hand and brought to his lips where he kissed the inner part of Jean’s wrist. 

Jean froze, quickly trying to release his hand from Marco’s grip, the other just held on tighter as he opened his eyes to stare at Jean’s red and frightened ones. 

“Did you seriously mean everything you just said?”   
Jean looked frightened, specifically like a cornered animal. Marco knew he needed to be gentle but Jean was begging to disentangle himself from him. 

“Jean...?” Marco started slowly, waiting for the other’s response   
“I..I ..I” Jean wasn’t even looking at him anymore

‘He was probably expecting a rejection’ Marco thought, ‘if only he knew that he felt the same way’.

Without thinking, Marco blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “I have never wished for you to be a girl. I mean yeah you might have made a very pretty girl and all but that’s not what matters to me Jean. Did you really mean everything you said? Just a simple yes or no question, please tell me.” 

Jean looked him in the eyes again, there was still fear written all over them but he was trying to mask it with a frown. Marco could tell but he needed an answer before he could comfort Jean.  
“Ha...how much did you hear Marco?” Jean stammered out as he searched for answers all over Marco’s face. 

He was so screwed right now, he was such an idiot why did he think this was a good idea, everything was ruined now, farewell Marco Bodt forever; Jean was screaming internally.

“All of it.”   
“Shit!” Jean said under his breath, he looked way and closed his eyes, here it comes. “And all I have to say is that yes I want kids. Gosh do I ever want to be a dad, but,” Marco paused.Jean could feel the smile spreading on Marco’s lips as Marco kissed the same spot on his wrist again.   
“We can always adopt.”   
Jean’s eyes popped opened and he stared into Marco’s with hope and relief. Well that certainly was not what he was expecting, Marco let out a breathy chuckle and finally released Jean’s wrist now that the other was more ‘calm’. 

Calm wasn’t the right word to describe Jean’s mix of emotions that were running through his face at the moment but at least Jean wasn’t running away. Instead Marco took the opportunity to bring his own hand to caress Jean’s face much in the same way Jean had done to him. 

Marco placed his forehead on Jean’s and looked deeply into his glistening amber eyes as he held him in place, he needed Jean to hear this more than ever. 

“Jean Kirschtein.” He smiled, his heart was beating so fast he thought he might be having a heart attack and his hands were so clammy that at any minute Jean would swat him away. “I love you.” 

That was all it took to break Jean’s dam and for the waterworks to began. “I always have,” Marco continued, “and I can guarantee, give or take a standard deviation of plus or minus 10 that I always will love you, you blubbering mess of tears.” 

Jean tried to hit him for the last part but couldn’t bring himself to do it. He couldn’t even stop the tears that Marco was furiously trying to wipe and kiss way. 

“Marco Bodt you fucking nerd. I hate you so much.”   
Marco cupped Jean’s face, they were nose to nose now.   
“No you don’t muñeco,” he tenderly whispered “you love me remember.” He smiled and leaned in to kiss Jean on the lips. 

It was quick peck, however Jean had other ideas and didn’t let Marco pull away as he wrapped his arms around Marco’s neck to hold him in just a breath away from his lips. 

“You’re always right you know?”   
“I know.”   
“Seriously why do I love you?,” Jean deadpanned as he crashed their mouths together and deepened the kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was suppose to be smut but turned into messy angsty fluff. Hope you guys liked it. 
> 
> Translations:   
> Spanish: muñeco-doll, babe. cariño- my darling, love, sweetheart, sweetie  
> German: Schätzchen-darling, sweetie, honey. Nein mein Schatz- no my treasure(gem, sweetheart)


	14. So How Do We Do This?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys are officially dating, but life keeps them busy throwing more than one curved ball their way.

After they had kissed and cuddled for a while Jean had to stop what they were doing, he couldn’t hold it any longer. He broke the kiss and Marco began kissing Jean’s jawline and neck as Jean regained his breath. 

“Hey, hey Marco.” Marco just hummed in response, he was so blissfully happy he couldn’t believe it. They were probably still drunk or it was a very realistic dream.   
“Marco, hmp… it’s not that I don’t like what you’re doing but we need to stop.” Marco looked up at the man that was under him in confusion.   
“I need to seriously go pee. Like right now.” Relief washed over Marco as he rolled over to give his boyfriend, yeah he liked the sound of that, the freedom to go to the washroom.  
Jean leaped at the opportunity, clearly he really needed to pee. 

As he grab the doorknob his hand got covered in slippery goo. He looked at the ground and found condoms sprayed all over the floor, then he risked looking back at Marco who was still on the bed only to see him lying where he had left him naked. 

Jean’s face was a whole new shade of red he was sure of it, he looked down to find that he was naked as well. What the fuck happened last night? He thought to himself, he had to know before he went pee, suddenly this was more important that biological needs. 

“Hey Marco?”  
“Yeah?”, Marco propped himself up on his elbows to look at Jean who was just standing by the bathroom door.   
“Did we…di-did we have sex last night?” Jean looked at Marco waiting for a response, he knew Marco was way more sober than him last night. He had made sure that Ymir didn’t get Marco as drunk as she wanted last night and took one for the team, giving some of the less intense drinks to him or switching drinks when Ymir wasn’t looking.

“No. Unless I missed it somehow,” Marco responded with sarcasm.   
“But there is lube on the door and condoms on the ground,” Jean insisted.  
“Oh that,” Marco chuckled, “That’s all you love.” 

Jean was in complete shock and looked at Marco as if to say what the fuck. Marco was going to have to find out how much Jean recalled from last night later on.   
“Well I guess I forgot to clean the door knob, but that wouldn’t have been an issue if you didn’t pour lube all over my face last night.”   
“What?!” exclaimed Jean.

“And then you chucked the box of condoms you opened at the bathroom door,” Marco said in an amused voice.   
“Ok you are sooo telling me what happened last night after I pee, ok. This is so not alright,” Jean pointed to the lube covered door knob as he closed the door.

Meanwhile Marco stretched on the bed with a smile plastered on his face. He just couldn’t believe it, after so many years of trying to get Jean to notice him in the end they both had just been so blindly oblivious to everything. At first Marco had thought it was all him and that he was broken or something. After all Jean never paid him attention in that way and he had tried going out with other people. 

He first thought he was just gay as he never fully developed any feelings for the girls he dated and felt it was wrong to string the poor girls along. Thus his dating streak was many but shortly lived and it explained his fascination with Jean. So Marco tried going out with boys instead. That too ended up in failure. He didn’t feel attracted to any either, which didn’t make sense to him since he was 100 percent sure he was in love with Jean and Jean was clearly male.

It was not until their second year at university when he and Krista were together at a local bubble tea shop waiting for their partners to arrive, that he opened up to anyone about it. Krista was an active member of the LGBTQA union at the school and therefore was able to guide Marco into the appropriate path, pointing out that maybe he was demisexual. 

She had explained it all to him and it made Marco realize that he truly wasn’t broken. He told his cousin that night but never talked about it with Jean. He didn’t care anymore, the past was the past and now he had the one person he had ever loved as his boyfriend. Nothing could break this perfect blissful feeling in his chest.

Jean jumped onto the bed breaking Marco from his daydream as he turned to look at Jean who had joined him on the bed. Jean took a second to get comfortable, laying down beside Marco and propping his elbows up letting his head rest on both his hands, looking like a kid waiting for his parent to tell him a story. “Sooo, what exactly happened last night hmm?”

 

Eren woke up as something kept tickling his nose and no matter how much he rubbed it, that something kept coming back. He finally gave up and opened his eyes only to be meet with a curtain of golden hair on his face. He moved his face away from it and used his hand to brush off the bits that seemed to have been glued to the side of his mouth. He was now facing the ceiling, his right arm was numb and he had a pounding headache. 

He was never trusting Jean and that Ymir chick with his drinks ever again. He tried to sit up but his numb arm was caught on something. He turned to see Armin laying there beside him. His back facing Eren as he held Eren’s arm hostage in an embrace. Armin’s hair was all over the place which explained how it had gotten all over his mouth and nose. 

Eren laid back down as he rubbed the grit out of his eyes. It felt nice to have Armin in his arms, like he did last night in his dreams. Those dreams kept getting more and more vivid each time, this time Eren could almost guarantee it was real but there was just no way. Finding himself in bed with Armin spooning was nothing new, so it’s not as if any of his fantasies came true. On the contrary it just fueled them even more.

Eren stared back at the blond mop of hair as he listened to Armin’s soft breathing. He smiled to himself, it hadn’t been that long ago that Armin came out to him and Mikasa as bisexual and thus felt he didn’t deserve to do the things they used to do, such as this. Armin had thought that Mikasa and Eren would feel uncomfortable, especially Eren since they had slept in the same bed so many times together. 

Eren had told him that Armin didn’t stop treating him normally when he came out as gay so why would this be any different. Mikasa told Armin that she had a feeling about it when he and Annie had broken up, since Annie came and talked to her about it all. Soon after Annie and Mikasa had hooked up but not without making sure Armin was ok with it first. 

Armin was an important person to them and they wanted him to be okay with their relationship. Armin had said that Annie always seemed to like Mikasa more anyways and that he was happy if they were happy. After that their dynamics didn’t change much, except cuddling in Mikasa’s bed became less common as Annie seemed to spend more time at their place.

Eren sighed and smiled at the nostalgia, after his parents had died in a car crash and him and Mikasa had moved in with Armin’s grandfather he never expected to have a family again. Things were rough for a bit when Armin’s grandfather passed away in their first year of university but they had managed and only became closer with the loss. 

He couldn’t actually pin point when he started developing feelings for his best friend. There was just this one morning when he woke up and bam, it kinda hit him. Eren sighed again as he closed his eyes in hope to find the answer to that question. 

“You know, thinking too much can be bad for you,” came Armin’s sleepy voice as he turned over to face Eren, draping the tanned boy’s right arm over his fair shoulders and intertwining their fingers. Eren smiled as he looked down at Armin, “are you speaking from experience there Armin?” he teased. Armin just shrugged and looked away too busy staring at their joint hands with affection.

Eren reached over to brush a few offending golden locks of hair that dared to block his view of Armin’s face. Armin leaned in to the touch as he sighed contently. “So what were you thinking about hmm?” Armin questioned as he kissed their joint hands. How he wished his hand wasn't as numb as it currently was, just so he could actually feel Armin’s lips on him. 

Eren just smiled at him, “Just reminiscing about stuff.”   
“Like what?”  
“Like how when you came out you didn't want to do this anymore,” Eren said as he draped his left leg and arm over Armin. Trapping him in a bear hug as he rubbed his cheek on the side of Armin’s face. Armin chuckled. 

“Eren stop it tickles,” he said as he pushed Eren’s face off him, but pulled him back when Eren tried to move away. “You’re such a pain,” he said as he gently pecked Eren on the lips. Eren wasn't sure what was going on but he didn't want it to stop. “I guess it's my fault too, I have babied you for too long now, there was no way you would change in behaviour once you became my boyfriend.” Armin gave a content sigh. 

“Boyfriend, you say?” Eren questioned in a teasing manner while at the same time trying to replay last night as quickly as possible to fill in the gaps.   
“Well I'd hope that's what you'd want after last night,” Armin said bashfully as a furious blush spread across his cheeks. The memories of last night hit Eren like a truck then. That's right, he had confessed to Armin in the least romantic way possible. 

Eren pulled Armin tighter into the hug and kissed his forehead. “Now what kind of person would I be if I didn't love this tiny coconut head ba-”   
“EREN!!”, Armin protested, Eren knew that Armin wasn't a fan of being called coconut head but he loved teasing him any ways. “Of course you're my boyfriend Ar, and here I thought you were the smart one,” he sighed dramatically.  
Armin pulled out of Eren’s hold. “Why did I even agreed to this,” Armin joked as he rolled out of bed. “Because you actually love me,” Eren grinned. 

Armin sighed as he looked at the dork who was busy poking at his left hand with affection. “We should probably get dressed, contact the girls and get something to eat,” he told Eren as he began grabbing his clothes.

“That’s a great idea, I’m starving.”   
They both collected their discarded clothes and got dressed without much off a hassle, stealing a few kisses here and there when the opportunity presented itself. Armin went around the room again to make sure they weren't leaving anything behind. Once he was satisfied he ushered Eren, who was busy texting Mikasa, out the door and locked the room. 

“So the girls say that there is an all you can eat breakfast down the road. We can either go there or we got to their place, which one would you prefer?”, Eren said as he and Armin walked towards the elevator. 

“I much rather just go to their place. All you can eat sounds great and all but I want to sit in comfortable clothing, maybe the place has take out?” Eren nodded in agreement, they each had at least a set of clothes at each other’s apartments for occasions such as these and holidays. “That would be nice if we got delivery. No cooking and just chilling all day.” Eren said as they both stepped into the elevator. 

Eren finally put the phone down as Armin pressed the ground floor button. “So Armin, I was thinking...”   
“That's a dangerous thing to do.”  
“Hey. But no seriously, if the company needs genetic material. Wouldn't it have been easier to just do a cheek swab?”, he asked as the doors closed.

 

The next few weeks were uneventful, school resumed as usual and Armin and Marco went back to work. In the meantime, Jean spent most of his time developing new recipes and started including some exercise videos on his blog. At the same time, he was always spamming Connie and Sasha’s phones with texts and whatever else he found online to amuse him. 

Armin and Eren were busy with school, nothing much had changed from before, except now they used only one bedroom and Miss. Potachio didn’t seem to annoy Armin as much. He knew Eren was his regardless of their meaningless flirting. 

A month later Eren and Jean had gotten a call to set up a date to talk with Harvey and the Dean of their program. When the date for the meeting finally arrived, they both dressed in professional attire, and received a message from Reiner telling them to be on their best behavior and not to fuck it up. 

Marco and Armin had agreed to walk their nervous boyfriends to the Applied Health Science building to calm their nerves and to prevent any unnecessary fighting. Surprisingly both Eren and Jean behaved and they wished them luck as they entered the building. Once their partners were out of sight Jean stopped walking and pulled Eren back. 

“Hey..”, he started and sighed, “Listen, I-I just want you to know that…”, he inhaled and looked Eren in the eyes. The other looked as ticked off as Jean was feeling. “We both need this job and I didn’t mean anything I said back then,” Jean tried to apologize as he ran his hand through his hair.   
“You're a decent trainer, and I respect that. So apology accepted,” Eren said dryly, “Besides I was out of line too.”

Jean smirked, “I guess if I had to admit it, you’re adequate at your job.”   
“Hey!”, Eren said with a smile as he playfully punched Jean’s shoulder  
“Hay is for horses.”  
“Yeah, you would know.”

They stayed where they were for a bit, both smiling at one another. Jean put out his hand, “Let’s call a truce, you're not that bad when you're not being annoying and it's nice to have someone else to deal with Ymir.”   
Eren shook Jean’s hand, “I can say the same and dude that chick is crazy.”  
“Oh I KNOW, you don’t have to tell me. She’s Marco’s cousin so I can never really get rid of her,” Jean told him as they walked towards the Dean’s office.

“No way. Well you could always just be yourself.”  
“And what does that mean?”  
“Be an unbearable ass and then she might jus-”  
“I’m not going to have my boyfriend’s only cousin hate me, are you mad!”, he exclaimed, “and besides she can totally kick my ass. I have never seen her loose in my life.” 

“She did look like someone you don't want to mess with. I kinda wanna see who would win in a fight, my sister, her girlfriend or Ymir.”  
“I would pay big bucks to see that fight. Both frightening and breathtaking I bet.”  
Eren nodded in agreement. 

Once inside the Dean’s office they listened to Harvey give a report to the Dean. She had already gone through their files, videos at the gym and wanted to hear their version of the story. So they told her the events, admitting to neglecting to watch their client while they bickered, but never laying a hand on Mrs. Stark. 

“Well boys,” she paused, “you're in luck. We ran an investigation with campus police, and they interviewed all your clients and coworkers. It seems like you are both well liked and respected. Not a single report on ever crossing the boundaries except for our current client. Which we found multiple “assault” cases that had been reported by her of her previous trainers.

It seems Mrs. Stark has a nasty little habit of enticing her trainers into doing other recreational sports. After reviewing everything, we have come to the conclusion that you're not guilty of the crime with which you're being charged. However policies dictate that you cannot return to work for us after such an event. I am truly sorry to see both of our best trainers being suspended for the next 6 months. However this event was brought to the attention of Mr. Stark who has written a letter for the both of you, with his sincerest apologies for this mess.”

The Dean spoke for a while longer, both boys held an envelop and waited to be dismissed.

When they were finally free to go they texted their boyfriends to meet them at the campus bubble tea. The bubble tea shop was closer to their building so Eren and Jean arrived first. They ordered drinks for themselves and their partners and found a table in the overly crowded shop. 

As they waited, Eren decided to open his envelope. 

“Seriously, what is this? Some rich old man saying ‘sorry my wife tried to screw with two gay men and it didn’t work out’.” Jean laughed and encouraged Eren to read the letter out loud, he doubted his would be any different. 

“‘Dear Mr. Yager’,” Eren started, “He spelled my name wrong.”   
“It can't be helped, he’s old, keep reading,” Jean waved off Eren’s concern.

“Fine. Ahem. ‘Dear Mr. Yager,. I wish to deeply apologize for the inconvenience my wife has caused for you and your friend’,” he paused, “for the record we are not friends.”  
“Noted”  
With that he continued to read in a sophisticated tone, “‘I understand that the commotion with my dear wife has left you both unemployed.’”  
“No shit Sherlock.”  
“Shush, no interrupting.”  
“Sorry, sorry please do go on your graciousness,” Jean bowed

Eren seemed pleased and so he continued “‘I would very much appreciate it if you would take this’,” he handed Jean the envelope and told him to open it, “‘as a token of my sincere apologies. Kind regards, Mr. E. Stark.’”

As Eren finished the last bit of the letter Jean did as he was told. 

“So what's inside?” He asked Jean who was just staring at the contents in his hands, speechless. 

“What is it, gosh you’re such a loser. Just hand it over.” Impatient as ever Eren took the whole thing from Jean’s grasp and decided to see what the fuss was all about. In the envelop there was a single rectangular piece of paper. Eren wasn't sure why Jean had put it back in, but then again he could never understand him. Eren pulled the paper out of the envelope to reveal a check.

“What, is he going to pay us for our silence?” He said as he looked at Jean, who was still speechless.   
“Eren just look at it again,” Jean said as he leaned over the table to point at the figures. Now it was Eren’s turn to be speechless, he looked back at Jean with his mouth opening and closing like a fish.

“I-uh… what do we do?”  
“I don't know?”  
“Open yours let's see what you got,” That was all Eren could come up with at the moment. 

Jean quickly ripped through his envelop to pull out a smaller envelope containing a check much the same as Eren’s, both boys stared at each other in shock. Jean let the breath he was holding in escape as he leaned back into his chair, Eren followed suit, mimicking the others actions. 

Eren let his arms fall by his side, still clutching the check in his right hand. While Jean crossed his arms and brought his right hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“What do we do Eren? We can't just deposit this. If we do we mighty look like we did some weird underground deal and suddenly our poor student accounts are loaded. It's too suspicious.” 

“I don't know! Then what do you suggest we do instead?”  
Jean stared at the check that laid in front of him on the table, “we wait for Marco.”  
“What?! Why?”  
“We are going to put it into Krista’s account, then from there we can get bi-weekly deposits into our account with no suspicions raised.”  
“Wait what do you mean with no suspicions raised? Jean if you haven't noticed this is not a normal sum of money we can’t just deposit into just anyone's account”, Eren was beginning to get irritated with Jean.

“I know,” Jean said with extreme coolness, which sent Eren into a subtle rage. “We are putting it into Krista’s account because she is the only person I know that handles large sums of money on a regular basis.”  
“What does she do, run the black market or a mafia or something?”  
“No idiot, she’s the daughter of an extremely wealthy man, and she is also the only person that would willingly do this without asking questions.”  
“Oh”  
“So we wait for Marco.”

Eren nodded and they waited in silence for Marco to arrive.

Marco and Armin had ran into each other on the way to the bubble tea shop and were pleased that both had received amicable texts from their counterparts. It was good to know they hadn’t killed each other while they were in class. Once they arrived at the shop however, they could feel the tension in the air. They sat beside their partners and hoped for the best.

“So, did the meeting not go well?” Armin started.   
“The meeting went peachy Armin. Jean and I are suspended for the rest of the year, like it makes sense, we are graduating right after. Probably not working for them anyways.” Eren stated.

“Then what's th-” Jean cut Armin off before he could ask any more questions.  
“Marco I need you to talk to Krista for us.”

“Eh sure Jean, but that can wait till after you guys tell us what happened.” Marco seemed as confused as Armin.  
“Everything's fine just call her now,” Jean said in an irritated tone.

“Wait, why does Krista need to be involved? Eren please clarify?” Armin got handed the check, “Oh, well um… that's a lot of zeros.”  
“Yeah and Jean here thinks we can have our accounts frozen if we just go and deposit these things.”  
“Well he is right,” Marco said as he looked at the check Jean gave him. “Krista is the best option if you want to have access to this.” Marco held the check in his hand as he talked.  
“So why do you both have these anyways? Answer me that one question and I'll call Krista right away.”

Jean did a quick recap of the events that had unfolded, Eren filling in the gaps, and eventually he handed Marco the letter. “I see, well Mr. Stark sure was generous. Clearly he is used to his wife’s antics, and from what I can tell from the letter he is aware of your situation,” he sighed, “I’ll have to talk to Krista but I'm sure she will do it.” 

Marco arranged everything with Krista and that weekend they got together and Krista took care of the checks. Ymir was away for the weekend so there was no drinking but rather a lovely lunch Krista had prepared as she handled business matters. 

“Thank you so much Krista, I don't know what else we would have done,” Jean said as he hugged her goodbye.   
“Oh please Jeanbo, we are practically family. No need to worry.” She said as she presented her signature angelic smile. Armin and Eren also thanked her and they were all on their way.

 

The rest of the semester was rather uneventful for Eren and Armin. They saw the girls regularly, they went to school and things seemed to go back to normal. As the end of the semester approached they became busier and had to put some plans on hold.

Likewise Marco and Jean’s semester was uneventful. However they weren't sure if they should tell their friends they were dating or if they should just do something the next time they met. They were still adapting to the new and amorous feeling from their newly established relationship that kept them in their own bubble causing severe procrastination and their grades to slip. 

Marco knew that his grades needed to be maintained if he still wanted to continue working for Dr. Zoe, and Jean wasn't about to let either one of them fail. So he made a strict schedule that would keep them both in check. Needless to say it left little time for socializing. 

Even when they managed to have some free time, their friends seemed to be as equally busy as they were. 

Connie and Sasha’s annual Halloween party had been canceled do to work and school. What destroyed Sasha the most was that she couldn’t host thanksgiving because she had gotten sick that week. 

Reiner had invited them to his Christmas party and that also got cancelled. Sasha and Connie were working on New Years and Ymir and Krista had decided to spend it overseas, that left them alone to spend the holidays with each others families. 

They had grown accustomed over the years to alternating between spending Christmas with one family and new years with the other. It worked for both their families as they couldn't be there for both holidays, they at least knew that they were being taken care off. 

This year it was Christmas with the Krishteins and New Years with the Bodts. Marco and Jean decided that they needed to start the New Years right. So at the countdown to midnight they kissed and took a picture which they Snapchated to all their friends to let them know they were finally together. 

 

Once they returned to school, things were still a bit chaotic. Armin had been busy working on research for Dr.Smith, the girls were off on another mission and Eren had nothing to do except school and pick on Jean. 

Especially since they had to renew their lease, Eren made it his mission to get an apartment that had windows that opened and less annoying neighbours. Armin convinced him to stay in the same building but get a different floor. Which they managed to do and they finished moving things before the beginning of the next term, thanks to Annie and Mikasa spending the last days of their holidays helping them move in.

Once the semester started, Jean tried to keep himself busy, with the occasional confrontation with Eren who had somehow figured out their apartment number. Marco was staying later in the labs which resulted in Jean bringing him and Dr. Zoe dinner more than once. 

Things seemed to be winding down and reading week was just around the corner, and so was St. Patrick’s Day.

Ymir had sent an invitation out inviting friends and family to celebrate all the holidays they had missed. She knew Connie and Sasha would be busy on St. Patrick’s so she planned on doing the event the Monday of reading week. 

Everyone had agreed to come. Sasha promised to make her thanksgiving meal, Connie promised to bartend. Reiner was going to bring music, Berthold would bring extra sleeping bags and pillows. 

Annie and Mikasa were taking care of secret Santa. Krista promised to bring costumes for everyone since she missed out on Halloween and Ymir promised to bring chocolate and mistletoe. 

Ymir had also volunteered her cousin’s and Eren’s apartments for hosting the event, leaving the boys to rearrange the apartments to accommodate the large group. 

She had also appointed Jean was in charge of making birthday cake and Armin was on decorating duty. 

It was not until he got the invitation that Jean noticed that Eren was residing across the hall from him. He had seen Armin more often, however he assumed that he meet Marco on his way up and had stopped to talk. 

He liked Armin but just couldn't believe that now he had to share the floor with Jaeger, the fact that they hadn't run into each other that often was a miracle. 

Everyone was buzzing with excitement as the much awaited get together approached.

 

 

Ring~  
“Hel-”  
“Erwin, I need you guys to come to my lab immediately.”  
“Hange it's 3 in the morning.”  
“It worked! Ahh~”, there was a loud scream in the background.  
“Hange are u ok?”  
“Yes, just hurry I don't know how deal with- ugh just both of you come over. And- oh, fascinating, already. Hmm I must record this.”  
“Hange stay right there. We will be right over and we will bring reinforcement”  
“Hurry these are quite fascinating and hard to handle.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for sticking with me thus far. I had many more ideas but I'm dying for some domestic fluff, how about you? Next chapter is the last one for this fic. But there will be side stories that focus in more detail on each couple :)
> 
> I wanna thank again Lady Hades and @the1nerdygeek for their constant help and ideas


	15. Surprise!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang is ready to party and having a blast, little do they know that Hange has a little surprise waiting for them.

“Erwin, we have been knocking for the past minute and a half. She’s either dead or ignoring us, so~ can I just kick the door down...now?” Levi rubbed his temples, exasperated. Petra behind him, interrupted Erwin before he could say anything else and placed a tender hand on his arm as she spoke. “Listen Erwin, we tried to do it the civilized way. Why don't we try it his way now.” She finished with a smile as she stepped out of Levi’s way, bringing a resigned Erwin with her. Who conceded with a sigh. Within the a blink of an eye and a back kick, the lab door landed flat on the floor with a loud ‘thunk’ and a cloud of dust arose to meet them.

“Oh god, does she ever clean this place, cough cough cough,” Levi muttered while waving his hand to clear the air. “I kinda expected better from her intern to be perfectly honest,” he continued to complain as they walked in. 

“Well I don’t know her intern but the other section of the lab was rather clean,” Petra tried to defuse Levi’s obvious displeasure of being awake so early with no one to punch his frustration out on.

“Hange?”, Erwin called out, “Hange! Where are you?” Erwin was starting to believe Levi’s theory of Hange being dead when someone poked at his shoulder to drag him out of his thoughts.

Erwin turned to look at Mike who used the same finger to point in the direction of the closed closet door. He looks quizzically at the door and at Mike, who just shrugged and walked towards it. “You might want Levi to stand back a bit, it smells like shit in there,” Mike said as he opened the door to find a sleeping Hange on the closet floor.

\---------------

The door hit the wall with a loud ‘bang’ from the kick Ymir gave it as she lowered her leg and walked into the apartment. “The fun has arrived!”, she sang as she dumped the stuff in her arms onto the couch next to Jean.   
“And what might this be?”, he questioned at the many odd suitcases and boxes beside him as she jumped over the couch to sit beside him.   
“Ah my dear Jeanbo, it's best if you don’t know these things, my son. Maybe one day when you grow up into a man you might learn about the adult world,” she cooed while mushing his cheeks with her hand.

Jean pulled her hands from his face with a scowl. “Ok I’ll bite, what is it?” he said as he turned to look at the pile.   
Ymir clinged to him and whispered in his ear, “It's best you don’t touch that if you value your life. They’re Krista’s babies and she will protect them till death.” Jean backed away and she released him to slump on the couch beside him.   
“By the way, where is Krista, I saw her running around and t-”   
“Don't you have a few cakes to finish?”   
“Yes, but they're almost done an-”  
“Yeesh, just finish them, the guests will be here soon and we are going to need space in the fridge.”  
“We can use Eren’s fridge for that,” Jean said as he obediently went to the kitchen to finish pipping the borders of the last few cakes. Ymir followed close behind, propping herself on the counter beside him. Once Jean began piping she took the icing bowl and began eating from it with a spoon. Jean got too absorbed into making things perfect to pay any attention to what she was doing. 

“So you and Eren are friends now?”, she asked as she licked off what remained left of the icing from the spoon. Jean finally looked at her as he puts the two cakes in the fridge.   
“I wouldn't call him my friend, just someone who is unfortunately friends with most, if not all my friends so I have to tolerate him, that kinda deal. Plus as you know he is literally across the hall from me,” he grabs a dish cloth and begins wiping down the counter like it personally offended him. “Shame,” Ymir shrugged as she got off the counter, dumping the bowl and spoon into the sink beside her. “I thin-”  
“No! YOU do not get to finish that sentence,” Jean huffed as he removed his hand from Ymir’s mouth, “last time you said something like that you made it your personal mission to make it happen. And now we have two dumb asses who are permanently stuck to me.”  
“Aw come on, Jeannie. Baldie and gluttony aren’t that bad are they now. They make things interesting and you approve of her cooking skills.”  
Jean sighed knowing he'd lost the battle, it was too true. Since Sasha and Connie came into their lives things had changed. He had gotten into more trouble doing stupid shenanigans than he had ever expected, resulting in Krista and Marco always bailing them out.   
“See,” Ymir beamed as she slapped him on the back, “we have friends and family that tolerate our bullshit.” Jean nodded and they both ended up laughing, just thinking about those moments. 

“That reminds me, what is it with you and family? I don’t get it, like you just started this out of the blue one day, so what gives?”  
Ymir looked at him while he started on the dishes. “I don’t know, I just thought it would be cool to start our own little family. It’s not like the four of us really have much of a family aside from each other.”   
“True, but I am not being anything to Jaeger. It’s bad enough being neighbours, seriously why did he choose this floor. But anywho, about the family shit, talk to Armin he’s been doing a lot of research on family and familial bonding crap that I don’t fully understand.”  
“Alright , alright. I’ll ask shortie more questions later.”  
Their conversation was interrupted by loud clinking sound of bottles and a scream of his name.  
“Seems like your favorite duo has arrived,” Ymir smirked as she hollered back letting them know that they were in the kitchen.

Sasha bounded in with a half cooked turkey and plopped it on the counter. “Now, now, step aside children this baby still needs cooking. I had Connie drive us here as fast as he could so it wouldn't lose heat and flavour. I’ll move the racks, Jean set the temperature to 425F.”   
Jean set the oven temperature and moved to let her have the kitchen, Ymir followed him out of the kitchen only to bump into Connie. “Perfect timing, put these in there and Jean come get the other boxes of booze with me.”

Soon after Jean’s kitchen had been transformed into a bar. Ymir moved all of Krista’s stuff to Marco’s room, while Jean, Eren and Armin finished putting together the rest of the apartments. They had decided that since Sasha and Connie had taken up residence in Jean’s kitchen, that food and drinks should stay there and they could set up mattresses and sleeping bags at Armin’s to avoid too much hassle later that night.

Reiner came in not a few seconds later with his music and as he set things up, Bert helped Annie add more pillows and blankets to the comfortable mess that was spread across Armin’s living room. People kept coming in and out of the apartment so much that Jean began losing track of who they were still missing. Ymir was busy putting mistletoe at random places in both apartments, while others seemed to be coming back from Marco’s room in full costumes. He hadn’t seen Krista yet but that little minx must have gotten her claws on some of them. He had to admit, the costumes were amazing and the make up, fantastic. Mikasa was dressed as Poison Ivy, Sasha was dressed like some princess fairy thing that seemed oddly familiar to Jean. He had seen Reiner not too long ago and he seemed to be dressed like a lion. Yet no Marco, odd since he lived here with him.

“Hey Connie, have you seen Marco?”   
Connie looked up from the bar, pulling the last few things from a box. “I haven’t really seen him, but dude, chillax. Marco won’t leave you, I mean he’s had years to do that and he’d surprisingly rather date you,” Connie wiggled his eyebrows at Jean, Jean scowled at him in return which he hoped was intimidating because he could feel heat radiating from his face.  
“That's what I keep telling him,” came Ymir's boisterous voice from behind Jean, “anyways, is my drink ready yet Connie?”   
Connie was just finishing garnishing up a green coloured drink with a lemon curl, he handed it over to her. “Here, a cosmo from Cosmo,” He smiled proudly. Ymir cackled and Jean face palmed. “I knew it. I knew I recognized Sasha’s costume and it makes so much more sense now.”  
“Isn’t my girl great!”, Ymir said as she sipped her cosmo, “Thats some good shit right there baldie.”  
“And what are you supposed to be? Some type of robot or a silver alien?”, Connie asked and only then did Jean turn to look at her.  
“If you can’t tell then I’m not telling,” she stuck out her tongue and kept them company for a while, making sure to call Eren over to start drinking.

 

“Krista are you sure about this?”, Armin asked for the fifth time.   
“Armin trust me you look great,” Krista said as she stuck in the last few bobby pins. Armin still felt a little self conscious as he looked over to Marco who gave him two thumbs up.   
“How come I have to wear this and Marco just has his hair dyed red,” he whined once more, mouthing ‘traitor’ at Marco as Krista pinned something to his shoulder. Marco stuck his tongue out in retaliation. 

“Marco put that back in your mouth, I don’t need you ruining your makeup before the group picture.” Marco sucks his tongue back in and began swinging his legs back and forth on the nightstand that he was sitting on, looking like a kicked puppy. Meanwhile Krista kept working on Armin’s costume, “Oh please Armin, as if Marco could pull the feminine look that well. Trust me I’ve tried but it’s never looked half as good as you. And I hardly had to do anything.”   
“You realize that doesn’t make me feel better.” 

Krista sighed, holding the brush up to his cheek. “Gosh everyone else was so easy to deal with, Armin why are you being so difficult. I know you have crossdressed before so stop your complaining. Stand up, turn around and hold your breath. Marco, tighten the strings as tight as you can.”   
Marco did as he was told and Armin gaked as he wasn't expecting the corset to be that tight. Kirsta looked over her work. “There, you're all done,” she smiled and wiped sweat from her brow, “and if it makes you feel any better you can always see all the pictures of the boys dressed up later. Jean surprisingly makes a very pretty girl.” Marco nodded excitedly beside her. 

“Fine, I’ll hold you to that,” Armin sayid with a peeved look as he flicked his braid over his shoulder. “Just send Jean in to get his costume on. Oh and Marco you have to leave before he sees you. I want it to be a surprise.”   
“Ok sure, I don’t see why it needs to be a surprise, but don't you want help with yours?”  
“Thanks for the offer Marco dear, but all I need to do it put on my wig, I’m pretty much done. Go have a few drinks and get the music started. Its way too quiet to call this a party.”

Marco went out and hid in Jean’s room as he watched Armin drag Jean back to his room. Yeah, Armin made a perfect Rapunzel, Krista was right. She had always been good at designing and dressing people up. When she told him about everyone else's costumes, he approved immediately. She of course hadn’t told him about his, it was to be a surprise just like everyone else. He really liked her costume. She was dressed up as Dorothy and she had Reiner, Bertholdt and Ymir as her sidekicks. Sasha and Connie’s costumes were amazing too, the crowns they had sat above their heads perfectly and those two were running around like idiots talking about ‘Da Rules’. 

As Jean was being manhandled by Krista, Marco came out to join his cousin at the bar, “Marco darling! So glad you could join us. Come, sit here with me and Flynnie. We can toast to having the best ideas for tonight's party. We are going to play so many drinking games it's going to be like that one devil juice induced St Patrick's day a few years back.”  
“Oh god, I don’t think that's a good idea Ymir.”  
“That's Ms.Tinman to you, Sally. And park your ass over here, have a cosmo and write down some songs on the request list.”  
“Harley over there had a great idea to get a playlist so we can all get drunk. Scarecrow suggested the shots song and god I love Rapunzel. He asked if I could make all the drinks for when we play that song,” Connie piped up  
“It's going to be better than devil juice!”, Sasha said as she peeked over to check on her turkey.

Twenty minutes later and Krista came out dragging Jean with her, calling for a group photo. “Jean I need to fatten you up, you're all skin and bones!”, Sasha exclaimed as she pokes Jean’s ribs.   
“Gosh Ymir was right, it's the perfect costume,” Connie piped in as he gave him a hug.   
“Shut up you stupid fairies. Now where’s Marco?”, Jean grumbled.   
“I think you mean Sally”, Ymir cackled. Marco came up behind him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Then everyone got into position, Annie went and set up the self timer on her phone and a few of the others. 

The party went on without a hitch. Jean and Eren bickered about a few things, Eren threatening Jean to actually use a frying pan on him. Krista, Mikasa and Annie danced together to a few songs. Eren got jealous of Armin and Jean’s reenactment of “Love is an open door” and actually tackled Jean by the end of the song. Connie brought out an assortment of different shots once Reiner told him “the song” was up next. Some were excited while other a little weary of having too much to drink. However after that song and a bit of food. No one complained about the amount of alcohol they were having. Jean and Sasha had banned everyone from the kitchen, Sasha was concerned for the cake that Jean had saved just for her, while Jean was more concerned about his kitchenware. That shits expensive.

Ymir still managed to sneak into the kitchen unnoticed with Bert, and together they did their best to recreate her all time favorite devil juice cocktail mix. Connie found them and got Reiner to drag them out of the kitchen. Ymir refused to give up her punch bowl concoction,which Bert convinced Reiner to allow them to take with them. They came back to find Sasha and Connie trying to catch food which Mikasa and Annie throwing were throwing at their open mouths. Armin and Marco seemed to be engrossed in a conversation about a cookie. 

Ymir didn’t care she wanted more singing and dancing so she decided to hand some of her magic drink to Krista, Jean, Marco and Armin. Krista and Jean accepted it without questioning much, while the other too looked at it for a moment before chugging it back and going back to their conversation.   
“So what is this about a cookie?”, she asked Krista and Jean. Krista shushed her, “Its getting good, it seems like they're actually going to fight over something stupid. It's like a shipping war but better,” Krista commented.  
“What do you mean?” Ymir was not getting it but she had never seen her cousin lose his shit over something so stupid so this should be entertaining and Jean was clearly enjoying it. “So it's not a shipping war so what is it?”

Jean filled her in on how a few kpop songs had played and the two of them had bonded over some groups and their ‘bias’. Ymir had no idea what the hell a bias was but she nodded along. Jean told her how they both really like this group called Seventeen and they somehow managed to “share/split” all thirteen members evenly amongst the two. However after “Blood, Sweat and Tears” played they went on about BTS and Armin didn’t want to share Kookie but Marco wanted a maknae cuz Armin had Dino. 

“Wait so it's not an actually cookie, it's a person.”   
Krista and Jean both nodded as they kept drinking the devil juice. Everyone in the room turned around to look at the two once food and pillows were being used as weapons. 

“God damn it Armin just let me have Kookie!”  
“You can’t even tell them apart can you Marco! You're not a real fan anyways.”  
“Why can’t I even get half of Kookie, I gave you half of my Jun and you didn't even want him till after I showed you those videos.”  
“Kookie and Dino are mine!”, Armin pulled up a picture on his phone and put it towards Marco’s face. “Tell me who’s who, if you get it right I will give you Kookie. Go!”  
“So unfair, I’m a new ARMY but fine,” Marco squinted at the phone and began pointing at members and naming them off.  
“Wrong, you don't get Kookie.”  
“Fuck you, give me Dino back!”  
“Dino is mine”  
“Fine I take all the Hyungs, that includes Hoshi.”  
“Oh no you don’t, you can’t take my Hoshi.”

Jean quickly recapped everything to the rest of the audience, many of which had never seen either one of those boys get angry or fight in their life. While Mikasa and Ymir were taking bets from the rest of the group. Eren decided that he needed to protect his princess and stepped in, something Jean thought was kinda stupid but he might as well help him out a bit. It's not like Eren could take Marco on in a fair fight and he didn’t want Marco to end up regretting this in the morning.

“Armin darling, stop fighting about a cookie. I’ll get you the biggest cookie if you just stop,” Eren said as he pulled Armin away from Marco. Armin kicked and tried to wiggle free from Eren’s grasp. Jean tried to pull Marco away as well but he was laughing too much at Eren’s comments to be fully functional.   
“Ha I win, my boyfriend at least knows what I’m talking about, Marco exclaimed as he stuck his tongue out at the struggling Armin.   
“Never, Kookie is mine,” Armin barked. “You can have Suga, I don’t want him and he is Woozi’s dad.”   
“I don’t even like Suga.”   
“I don’t see why you shouldn’t, h-”  
“Alright children I’m cutting you off,” Ymir said as Mikasa and Annie easily carried both boys to opposite sides of the room. 

Not soon after “Aju Nice” started to play and both quickly forgot the argument and began to do a drunk rendition of the dance, dragging a few of their friends to dance with them.  
Later that night a few of them ended up crawling to Eren’s apartment for the night while others just passed out on Marco’s floor. Bert was “sober” enough to bring a few pillows and blankets for the unfortunate souls who didn’t make it to the other room.

 

The morning seemed to come way too early…. and the knocking was way too loud.   
“Jeaan. Jeeaaan~”, Marco mumbled, using his hand to shake Jean beside him. “Jean there’s someone at the door.”   
Jean mumbled something unintelligible and went back to making those light snoring noises Marco adored. “Jean”, Marco whined one more time, this time shaking Jean a little harder and even kicking him hard enough to get him to wake up. 

“What!? What is it Marco?”, Jean, startled, turned to look at Marco who was still laying beside him, eyes closed.  
“There’s someone at the door go see who it is.”   
Jean relented, leaning down to peck Marco’s forehead as he got up from the couch they were sharing. How they made it through the night without landing on the floor he’ll never know.

Jean stretched his back as he went to answer the door, scratching his butt through his boxers. He opened the door intending to release all his anger on the sucker who decided to wake him from his slumber. But he became completely frozen at the sight of Hange at their door. He didn’t catch much of what she said aside from “surprise” before she thrusted something small and warm into his arms. After rearranging his hold on the thing, she waltzed in like she owned the place looking for Marco. 

Jean got pulled back to reality by a combination of someone poking him in the arm from the threshold and Marco screaming something along the lines of “Who the- what the fuck- Gahk! Dr. Zoe!” followed by a thump and ouch from a few voices not just Marco’s. “-an, Jean.” Jean looked at the person calling his name. It was Levi, that much he registered.   
“Jean, son are you paying attention?”, Jean nodded.

“I’m going to get Armin and Eren but I think you should sit down with Marco while we explain a few things. And for the love of god don’t drop her.”  
“Her…”, Jean whispered as his body went towards the couch in autopilot. “Her”, he repeated over and over. He finally sat down on the couch, Marco looked like he just died and came back as he gaped at Dr. Zoe. 

Marco slowly teared his eyes away from Hange, afraid to look at what Jean was holding, he just locked eyes with Jean. Jean finally broke eye contact to see what he was holding in his arms. 

“Oh...it's a baby…” Jean uttered, “it's kinda cu-” Jean was cut short by a loud scream that pretty much woke everyone up, followed by the loud and rapid thumping of someone running towards them. Eren crashed into the back of their couch with a loud ‘oomph’. Jean turned to look at the exasperated Eren who stared at him, eyes wide, pulling at his hair.   
“Oh my god, not you too! This can’t be, please tell me this is a dream. I swear I never stuck my dick any where near a vagina in my life!” 

The baby began to squirm in Jean’s hold, taking his attention from Eren to try to quiet it down. He wasn’t sure if he could handle a crying baby at the moment. Eren flopped beside him.

“How the hell are you so calm about this?”, Eren gestured towards the baby in Jean’s arms.   
“It’s just a baby Eren...and keep it down. We don’t want to wake it,” Jean replied as quietly as he could.   
“Her,” Hange corrected him, “well it's too early to assign them genders but biologically they're both female.”

Jean nodded, thinking those words over in his still fuzzy mind. Funny, usually he was the one who was fully awake first but now it seemed like it was Marco who was more awake. He kept giving Jean mixed looks of panic and fondness. Like both his nightmare and dream were staring at him in the face as he paced back and forth. 

“Both?” Jean questioned as he looked between all three.   
“Shit you don’t know,” Eren exclaimed,hiding his face in his hands. Jean was going to ask something else before Armin came in carrying a similar bundle to him.   
“Ah another baby,” he made the connection as Eren told Armin in hushed tone. Armin just looks at the scene, and it seemed Jean was completely shell shocked. 

Jean looks at the two babies again, “they're kinda cute.” 

The boys held their breaths as they stared at him. Jean smiled as he congratulated Hange on her twins and that he felt bad that he didn’t know she was pregnant. He would have made sure the food he brought over had more nutritional value. Hange stopped him with a laugh.

“Oh Jean, I was never pregnant.”   
“Oh, I’-” he didn’t even get a chance to apologize before Hange explained that the babies were theirs. The one he was currently holding is his and Marco’s and the other is Eren’s and Armin’s. 

“Oh...oh,” Jean was still processing the info as Marco approached him, as if he knew what his reaction was going to be. The easy smile that he was wearing disappeared and his arms went limp, Marco took the baby from his arms.  
Jean stood up and began pacing back and forth muttering about two males not being able to produce a baby as he pulled at his hair.

“Now that’s more what I was expecting,” Eren said smugly. Armin reprimanded him and tried to give him their child in order to comfort Jean who seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack. Eren squealed as Armin placed the baby in his arms.

“I can’t Armin. I’ll break it, I can't,” he was hyperventilating by the time Hange came to move his arms in a more natural position. Meanwhile Armin was getting Jean to take some deep breaths and prompting him to sit down on the chair beside Marco. Jean let Armin lead him to the chair as he eyed the baby, no, his baby.

“Thank god they finally calmed the fuck down,” Levi said, walking in with a cup of tea in his hand. Erwin showed up not a second after with two mugs of steaming coffee handing one over to Hange, who accepted it with a happy nod.

“Congratulations little shits, your parents,” Levi said as he sipped his tea.   
“Levi,” Erwin warned.  
“What? Those snot nosed brats need to know how grateful they should be for this.”  
Hange nodded happily to Levi’s comment.

“But I never- I mean yes I wanted children in the future but not like this,” Marco piped up, voice wavering a little near the end.  
“I know it's a lot to take in, especially after the night you guys seem to have had,” Erwin said as he looked around the apartment. He noticed a few of the other students awake but too scared to move, and obviously questioning as to how this was possible.  
“I am never drinking again,” Marco sighed tightening his hold on his little girl in his arms. He risked a glance towards Jean, who seemed to be staring at the sleeping child’s face, searching for any resemblance.

“Well, we have a lot to do so I’m going to give you a really quick rundown on how this little miracle happened. Then we can get all your friends to help us clean up and set up the rest before the baby experts come in and give you guys a crash course on how to deal with a baby,” Hange seemed unfazed by any of this.

Hange explained how they did need DNA for the organization that they were in, and normal waiver forms are always a thing at events. However this year they added a little extra, which they really should have paid attention to, Levi told them smugly over this second cup of tea. Hange went on to further explain that the research that she and Marco had been doing for the past year and a bit was all for this. Erwin similarly explained how his and Armin’s research on family bonding and child development needed closer research subjects and thus they each had to report to him once a week and keep a diary to maintain a steady record of their emotions and interactions. 

“And there you have it,” Hange clapped her hands in excitement, “you guys are now proud parents of the first two babies that have genetic material from both male parents. Isn’t it exciting, I mean, yeah you both had a 50/50 shot at the type of sex the kid would have, which is a kink I wanna fix when it comes to two female’s offspring. Along with a safer and quicker method for ovum extraction, but that’s something we can discuss when you come back to work Marco. I mean we are being rather nice giving you both reading week off so you can bond with your babies,” she smiled, “well now, friends of the new parents why don't you help clean things up.” 

Marco, Jean, Armin and Eren were still trying to understand how all this was even possible, the noise of their friends being muffled by their thoughts. 

“Shit, what are we going to tell our parents?”, Jean says with a shaky exhale.  
“I’m never drinking again!”, Marco exclaimed again, “and no swearing around our baby!”  
“Can we run a DNA test of our own to verify what you just said?”, Armin questioned.  
“Armin babe I swear I’ve never cheated on you,” Eren quickly told Armin, who gave him a small fragile, reassuring smile.

“Well now that that’s all settled. They need names,” Levi calmly added in as he found the cleanest chair to sit on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First I want to thank all of you for reading and sticking with me through the fic. Thanks for the comments u all leave they make me smile.
> 
> Thx to LadyHades for being my beta, and putting up with my lack of englishing lol. Also for the great material for Armin and Marco's fight, since something similar may or may not have happened to the two of us.
> 
> Guys any suggestions on names for the babies???
> 
> I really just want to write domestic shit for these dorks and their babies. Like the wifu said BABY RACES!!!


End file.
